Painting Tips!

Painting is always an adventure for me... and this project was no different!

My husband and I moved into our current home four years ago... and one project I've continued to put off is painting the family room on our main floor. The people who lived here before were both surgeons and had little time to paint anything (too busy saving lives, I guess - yeesh!), so it's been at least 10 years or more since it's been refreshed. One wall was a sickly, pale off-white and the others were stark white. You could even see on one wall, the outline of an oval picture that had once hung there many years ago. Lovely!  With our annual Halloween party fast approaching - and me still being off work -  there was no time like the present to tackle this project.

I couldn't get a shot of the entire room, but here's a picture of the fireplace before I started:

 

Pretty vanilla, huh?!  I learned a few important lessons during this project that I'd like to share with you.

Lesson #1: They sell those tiny paint samples in the stores for a reason.

Sadly, I learned this lesson a little too late.  I chose a Pittsburgh Paint color called "Hot Stone". (Don't you just love those paint names??! I want that job...)

According to the paint swatch, it was supposed to be a grey/beige (greige?) and I thought it would be perfect. Somewhat neutral, but still enough color to make the white on the fireplace pop, instead of fade into the wall like it was doing at the time.

When I opened the paint can, I was instantly worried. It looked to have a more greenish tint than grey: 

Green? Grey? Beige??!

 Uh oh... well, I know the color always looks different on the walls, so I took a leap of faith and started painting. Come to find out, on the wall, it has a significant blue tint.  See below: 

 

Oy.... well, the good news is, it actually looks good with the furniture in that room - and the hubster loves it - so I'm going to leave it. But one thing is for sure...I'll NEVER take on a painting project again without trying multiple samples on the walls first. I encourage you to learn from my pain!  

Lesson #2: Clean up

I am  a messy painter... and a bit of a clumsy person. I'm not proud of it, but I know my limitations. So I always make sure to tape off the woodwork and put a drop-cloth on the floor. I've never had good luck with the "blue" painters tape, so I decided to try Frog Tape. I was delighted to find it worked SO much better!! 

When I pulled the tape off, it didn't pull the paint off the walls like the experience I had with the other brand. It cost a little bit more, but was well worth the few extra pennies.

However... I still managed to get a considerable amount of drips on the floor, despite my best efforts. How that happened, I'll never know. BUT... I have a new best friend when painting: 

Goo Gone Painter's Pal is AWESOME!!!!!!!  Honestly, where has this been all my life??!! I just sprayed a bit on the dried spots, waited a bit and they wiped right up, no problem. If there is stock to be purchase in this stuff, I will be snatching it up pretty darn quickly. It even helped with lesson #3...

Lesson #3: The Near Disaster on the Couch 

Remember, I said I'm a clumsy person. Seriously, it's sad. So after the walls were done and the tape was removed, there were lots of touch-ups to be done. I'm not the best at getting the tape on exactly straight, so the walls needed a bit of help. I put some of the paint in a plastic cup, took my tiny paint brush around and hit any spots that were missed. 

By the way... I couldn't find any tiny paint brushes in the home improvement stores, so you know where I picked mine up??  Walgreens! They were in the kids art section and worked beautifully! And for a fraction of the price of regular paint brushes.  They worked GREAT!

But then... disaster struck. As I walked around the back side of the couch (which had been carefully pulled into the center of the room to avoid any paint splatters), I bumped the cup holding the paint. And it went FLYING.... onto the fabric-covered couch and the walls I had just painted. 

I'm sure the neighbors in my happy little suburb wondered what the heck the screams and incredibly loud F-Bombs coming from our home were really all about. I'm not proud, but I'm pretty sure I could have made a sailor blush. 

I tried to wipe the paint off the cushions with paper towels. That was just smearing it around and making things worse. Thankfully, the majority of the paint landed on one cushion, so I grabbed it and made my way to the sink. Turning the water on HOT and using the spray nozzle, the paint began to rinse off the cushion. It took about 20 minutes and I also used a washcloth to work the paint out, but it's FINALLY back to normal. Whew!  

At that point, I turned my attention back to where the rest of the paint had landed - on the walls. It had been a good 20-30 minutes, so it was starting to dry. Yikes! 

This is where my BFF, Goo Gone Painter's Pal came into play. I sprayed it liberally on the the paint splatters and yep! They came right off with a quick swipe of a paper towel.

Ugh... what a day... it's time for a cocktail.