The metal grate: A project in progress

T-minus 12 days till Mama H. gets here.  I'm pretty excited to be honest! She'll be here for 10 days which gives us plenty of time to get through some house and craft projects. But for Mama H., that's 10 days away from this little gem:

This creature freaks out when you take her near an airport, let alone on a plane. So, no visit from Miss Annie. But isn't she so stinkin adorable?

As for the guest room, we're nearly there. The painting is finished! All done! I'm not even going to bother posting pics of the trim work because it looks exactly the same as before, but fresher, and that doesn't show up in photos.

Well, there's still one piece of painting outstanding.  You may remember the grate / grill we have in this room. I have no idea what it's original purpose was (any takers? probably something heating-related?) but it looks cool-ish.

I decided that instead of painting it Bay Laurel, I would strip the paint off to get the original metal showing. It has to be something pretty right? Perhaps, even match the radiator?!  Call me ambitious and naive because this project is a beast. 

I've had to wait until semi-decent weather to do this outside, and Saturday gave me a chance. Seems easy enough at the start right? A little paint stripper (I know it's bad Arlene!), scrape it off, and voila!

But there's a trick here, because nothing is that easy. My first hint should have been when this genius idea crossed my mind: I should take a close up picture for the blog so you can see the INTRICATE DETAIL of the metal work. But no, it didn't click.

Instead, it dawned on me about here:

I'm about halfway through (after several hours) and I'm starting to wonder if I would have been better off just getting a can of oil-rubbed bronze spray paint. Not cool.

I'll share pictures as I progress, but don't hold your breath. This is taking forever.