It's only taken me two-and-a-half years to get around to painting my living room. (I could have sworn it's only been one-and-a-half!) Time really flew. It didn't fly quite so fast for all of the family members and visitors who have been looking at my white primed walls and blue paint tape (look at the door frame) for most of Gabe's life.
It was stark, it was bleak, but at least the room was clean, dry, and warm with a comfortable seat--kind of like a city bus.
Keith likes things to look nice, but he is VERY patient with me and puts up with A LOT knowing that the best interests of our family may not include me putting my time into interior decoring. He never complained about the white walls but he HAD been wanting to put up our pictures. They came down in February of 2007 when we began our building/remodeling project. They have been gathering dust in our bedroom ever since. Last Saturday he was in major handyman-mode and announced, "I'm putting the pictures up, I don't care if the walls are painted or not." I was out of stall time--"OK!" I said, "I'll paint today."
So, I started. I'd had one hundred and thirty weeks to prepare and it came down to a split-second decision. I headed to the work room in the basement, lined up all the cans of paint that I had and started testing. I made a color strip on a stir stick and brought it upstairs so I could compare the colors to our furniture, the fireplace, and our favorite picture (a sunrise over the lakehome where we used to live).
I picked four colors that I thought would or could work and prepared a section of the living room for a test run. I took me about three hours (including dry time--during which I listened to Chet's football game. Crazy boy played with a 101 degree temperature and still got 8 tackles and 2 sacks!). I settled on three of the colors and started in, after I repainted my trial wall white again!
I had decided to do a faux glaze color wash. I'm not really sure exactly what that means but those are all the terms I came up with as I did my internet research. I started with tan. First I brushed the wall down with water. Then I took my glaze mix--I mixed one part (about 1 cup) paint with five parts glaze and one part water-- and brushed it on the damp wall.
The second coat was added on Monday. It was a reddish brown that was way too reddish and after the first swipe of the brush I grabbed a wet rag and wiped it all off! I headed back down to the paint supply and found a dark brown that I mixed in until I no longer ended up with a pinkish looking brown.
I didn't start that coat until after our school day and supper preparation were finished and I put my brush down at midnight. I was up at five this morning to finish it off with black. Yes, black. It didn't sound good to me, but my professional-painter-friend Ricki assured me it would work. I think it did. Of course, everyone has their own opinion and I will most certainly hear from some naysayers, but I contend with, "It looks better than a city bus!"
Before
After
I even got the picture up!
More pictures and wall decorations will be coming and maybe a rug to cover the fraying carpet. But, since there's always a flip side to productivity and something's gotta give, I need to go clean my kitchen!
