I agree with you. I am totally against painting wood. But in this case, the wood was completely eaten away and it was filled with holes. I tried filling the holes with some wood filler but the contrast against the wood was to noticeable. I did eventually talk with the owner of the table and we decided it would be best to paint over it. Although I don’t like the ideia of painting over wood, it was the best option for this scenario. And if you notice the “dry assembly” on the grass, once I sanded the old varnish of the wood, the tones between boards was completely different and it would look odd.
