The was a bit more of an ordeal than I bargained for. The gallon of paint I have been saving for this day was not enough to paint the room. I managed one full coat, but I could see I needed a second coat. The dilemma was getting a new can of paint to match the existing color and getting to the store to get the paint.
You see, I loaned my truck to my son in law on Saturday before I started painting. I told him he could return it on Sunday after church. By the time I realized I’d painted myself into a corner, it was late and I didn’t want to call Sam up and ask for my truck back. (They would have to load babies into the car & disrupt their routine.) Don was gone all day Saturday and by the time he got home, I didn’t want to go to the store: I only wanted a hot shower and to rest.
It’s hard work climbing up and down off of a stool to paint angled ceilings & then crawling on hands & knees to do the walls! Besides, I became so obsessed with the project that I forgot to eat and I was not really in any shape to go to the store. I needed to eat and drink plenty of water.
I know: no one else does that. Forget to eat? Get obsessed? That would be me.
What I did do was a little research. I figured I would not get a perfect match in color, but I could make up for it by sponge painting. And sponge painting would add an accent to the molding that I hadn’t considered earlier.
Enter another problem: Don was going to go back up into the woods today and I would not have a car until this afternoon.
I guessed that all I would get done would be the trim & molding.
But Don is a little obsessed with his projects, too, and he had a stamp auction on eBay this morning. Yes, you read that right: he’s a philatelist. I suppose a philatelist is obsessed by definition: you’d have to be obsessed to sit and wait for an auction to end to see if you won a group of South American stamps from a dealer in New Zealand.
While Don waited for his auction to end, I borrowed his rig and went to the paint store where I had them mix up a gallon of something that came really close to the original paint. The woman who mixed the paint gave me an odd look when I said I wasn’t worried if it matched exactly as I was going to sponge paint. I bought a nice sea sponge, too.
I also made my self eat breakfast and break for lunch.
While I worked, I worried that this was not going to work. It’s hard to tell where you’ve been and whether the paint is drying a different color while you’re working. Up and down on the stool again, and onto my hands & knees. It wasn’t as hard as working with the roller and by the time I was two-thirds of the way into it, I was feeling pretty good about it.
I let it dry for an hour before I decided if I liked it or not.
The photo doesn’t quite do it justice and I can see some flaws in my work.
This is a little closer to the true color combination, but still doesn’t quite capture it.
The last photo is the truest.
I’m happy with it.
Next step: cleaning the softwood floors. I saw a product at BiMart that I want to try. There are some stains on the fir flooring that I want to try to remove. But that’s for another weekend.
Looks great to me!!!
All of the artists that I know see flaws in their work which no one else can see and most of them have learned to let go of the flaws. Tough thing to do, but otherwise you will be painting and repainting forever! :-p
Nice Jaci! Did you use a different color on the ceiling than the walls or does it just look that way because of the light? Your room is almost exactly like my bonus room with all those corners. Good for you getting right to it – I would have waited weeks before I got the mental “umph” to get started!
Looks GREAT!
This blog is great. How did you come up witht he idea? 2 6 4
It’s charming, Jaci. Any little flaws will add to the character of the room. You did great; I think it looks superb!
Thanks to all of you. I’m not worried about any little flaws. I’m sure that once I settle in, it will all look perfectly natural.
Jodi: I used the same colors all around the room. I think the ceiling looks different because of the lighting? Not sure. It helped that the room was entirely empty, so that motivated me. If I would have had to move a giant stuffed black bear, then… maybe I’d still be hemming & hawing about painting. ;P Just maybe.