Wednesday, February 25, 2009

It's a start, okay?

Yesterday I took on my very first solo painting project. And what room received this honor, you may ask?

My little craft room. In the basement - no windows, tile floor, drop tile ceiling, plywood walls. I figured no matter how badly I messed it up, I couldn't possibly make it more ugly than it already was. Also, there's no way I want to delay Aaron's own painting progress on much more visible parts of our house. Like, our entryway, for example. Slightly more important than my little cubby-hole.
























I bought my paint at a nearby hardware store. Because I didn't have a specific color in mind, and wanted to keep Aaron on my good side during this project, I chose a color from their "reject" buckets - a light green called Balsam originally priced at $45, which I got for $10. Sweet!

The room was cleared of all my various boxes and bags of craft supplies, including my sewing machine desk and a bookshelf full of my Creative Memories stash. The night before painting, I nagged and nagged at Aaron to be sure I had the right paint tray, roller, paintbrush, etc - I didn't want to ruin his "good" tools.

And then just before starting the job, I tossed aside the paintbrush he had recommended and used another anyway. Nice, huh?
Mom came over to watch the kids so I could have some uninterrupted time to slop color on those pitiful walls. I made my first mess immediately after pouring the paint in the tray - a bunch slopped over the edge of the bucket and started pooling on my dropcloth. But other than a couple of roller marks on the ceiling and a drip or two on the floor, it didn't go too badly.

Aaron said I probably didn't have enough paint on the roller, so I had to press too hard, and that's why the roller head kept coming off. The lighting is so terrible in that room (one bulb in a fixture right in the middle) it was really hard to tell if everything was getting covered decently.

I did learn that the tile ceiling and vinyl edging on the floor make for very easy trim work. And, they wipe off easily, too. Mom has already volunteered to help me paint the ceiling tiles and the frame (?) white one of these days, so I'm not too worried about the slop up there.
Here's how it looked after Mom was done helping me touch up:






So, I'm not totally convinced that this color is an improvement, but I feel better knowing that I picked it out! Also, I'm going to have Aaron put up some white shelves for me on one end, and then I have some stuff to hang on the walls, so they'll be broken up a bit.
Photos at that point will surely be posted. Stay tuned!

8 comments:

AJ said...

Liz has come over to the dark side of the painting force. Soon too she will be climbing ladders in a windstorm stretching over a vast expanse of nothingness to cover that last little spot of old ugly paint and replace it with the newer and better. Ahhh.... Brings back the memories of youth.

Aaron said...

Choosing the paint based on the sale... this is genius, and will make Kate cry.

Noel said...

But will there be crafter's remorse for the downstairs, no-windows room as there was for the crafter at our house? Will the room be too dreary in the winter and too far away from the social center of the house? Will downstairs be too cold to work in? Will the dining room become the de facto craft room? And what of the spousal corruption? Will Lyz give up the finer arts for the painting of gross expanses both indoors and out?

Lyz said...

Noel brings up a very good point. However, I do not anticipate trying to scrapbook in this room- it's for storage and sewing. For sewing, I need to be alone - I get too anxious. For scrapbooking, I have a station at the bar in our main level. An ideal social situation!

Anonymous said...

Nicely done Liz! You also did this while whatever many weeks pregnant, which is impressive unto itself. I didn't know you had a little room for your crafts, that's great!

Aaron says it "will make Kate cry" because I spent 2 weeks mulling over 20 different shades of gray, to find the perfect one for our living room. Slightly less adventurous.

Noel said...

Procol Harum recommends a whiter shade of pale.

Lyz said...

Kate - Well, we have spent about 4 months trying to decide on the perfect shade of green for the entryway.

1 Craaazy Mamma! said...

Even if it's not the best color for the room, it's better than the pale pink throw-up all throughout the house, right?

And, you couldn't beat the price!!!