Think outside the paint can....

I woke up one morning after Christmas was all packed away and I told my husband that I was tired of all the bright-white walls in the second floor rooms.... "It's like living inside an egg shell."

I have never liked white walls. They're cold, stark, hard. Not a hint of character, in my opinion. So off we went to Home Depot to look at paint colors. The sample cards my husband picked out were just a tinge more than bright white. "I want color. Real color. I want to be able to see it from across the room, without my glasses."

Do you know how many shades of beige and ivory there are on those paint sample cards? We looked at all of them. Finally settled on one called "Porcelain Skin." No yellow or brown or pink undertones... just a nice soft beige that we can both live with. Actually, I could have lived very well with a beige two or three shades darker, but when you put paint on with a brush instead of a roller, you can make that subtle color richer and more vibrant, which is exactly what I did. (Had I put that paint on any thicker, I would have needed a trowel, not a brush.)

My cousin F told me that I have a 'fear of the roller.' She may be right. I hate using rollers, especially on walls that are textured, which all of these are. Rollers make a mess, you need massive amounts of drop cloths, plus if you don't wear your oldest throw-away clothes, whatever you're wearing as you're rolling that paint on the walls will definitely need to be thrown away when you're done. I also have a fear of ladders, so I've been using a three-step step stool for all of this painting. My husband just had to do the wall over the bed..... there's a wide, deep piece of moulding over the windows on that wall, and even on the third step, I couldn't see the line between the ceiling and the wall.

So I've been using a brush, and painting one wall a day. Our bedroom is the largest room on the second floor, with lots of little alcoves and small walls, in addition to the three long walls. I was going to save that room for last, but now that it's almost done, I'm glad I started with the biggest room. No more bright white..... no more waking up in an eggshell...... the room is a rich beige-ivory, soft and warm-looking..... my curtains look new again, and the paintings look much better on the darker walls than on the bright white.

My mornings have been consumed with painting.... my right arm feels like lead after I'm done.... I haven't had nail polish on my fingernails since Christmas.... (unless you count a thin coating of the same beige-ivory paint that's on the bedroom walls)......