Home Make over...Pintrest is mean.

I don't take new experiences for granted, so I have to share my experiences on painting just 1-2 rooms. Even though I had stained a deck and painted furniture, I was in fact a rookie.

Pintrest is mean because it misleads anyone into thinking DYI projects are really easy and you end up spending more money than originally intended!

I remember writing a blog post in the summer of 2016 about how I would NEVER be staining a deck by myself again. Somehow, my naive ways struck me. Painting a master bedroom and bathroom will be way easier than staining a deck. I love home ownership and have no regrets but it is work or incredibly expensive. Or both. I won't lie to anyone thinking about it.

I learned the physical components of painting (which I will share in this post). I also had some realizations which sparked some personal growth which will probably be better in a separate post.

How hard is it to pick paint colors? Actually, with how things will look visually I am pretty decisive so this wasn't too bad. Blues and maybe in the bathroom green(ish)/blue. Colors that were beachy but not brown. I did however worry about my bedroom being too blue. My curtain, bedspread, pictures and a couple of shelves were blue already. I did not like bright greens or even calmer greens for my bathroom from the start, so I went with a blue that had more aqua/teal in it from the choices I had for my bedroom. In the bedroom, I really liked a bright blue......but I knew that was going to be way too much for all the walls. My indecision began. I had no idea what I truly wanted for my entire bedroom. This was why I picked one neutral color for my entire house 6 years ago.

My cousin was going to help me paint. She had recently done an ombre painting technique in her daughter's bedroom and it turned out pretty cool. This would allow me to use my awesome bright blue with the majority of the room being a lighter blue. With the help of Pintrest I got pretty carried away about this and my over zealous ideas were a fail! After painting 2 walls with the ombre technique, I was then able to decide I wanted 1 accent wall with the bright blue and then the rest of the room would be a lighter blue. Decision was made even though I had to paint over some sections of the 2 walls.

I realized from the start trimming would be hard for me. My cousin and a good friend were able to help. However, my impatience and independent nature caused a few mishaps as I was painting each wall the actual color I wanted it. So, I learned about paint rollers and naps. Specifically, dried out naps. Dried out naps do not spread fresh paint when you are trying to cover coats of paint on your walls. Dried out naps also are difficult to slide off the roller when you leave them overnight. I carelessly did not pay attention to this because I had paint brushes😏Hours and hours of painting with a paint brush on 2 large bedroom walls, I look at both walls in the light. I am thinking that these strokes on the wall look really bad! So, I received my paint roller and nap lesson and in the end a large paint roller that is clean does the job so much better.  It was only 6 hours lost and a few minutes of feeling naive and kind of dumb.

I also realized that trimming a room like this takes someone who has painted before 7 hours!! I couldn't believe it. Suddenly slapping on stain on an outside deck seemed easier.

Do not believe for a second I didn't try some trimming. In my bathroom there are spots in between my mirror, doorway and vanity that are about 2 inches. My cousin had said, we'll just go back to Lowes and but the smallest brush we can find. Impatience and independence snuck right in and I did this myself. It doesn't look too bad but it took about 4-6 hours to do this and touch up my white trim around doors/baseboards. I also need to mention 5 of these 6 hours were on my knees, which felt very, very painful!

As I was touching up baseboards and trimming on week 3 of my bedroom being torn apart, I grew disappointed in my bedroom furniture even though I loved my walls. How could this be? Why has the Feng Shui bug hit me. Back on Pintrest I went 😏Painting wooden antique furniture. It's possible. My room is in disarray now so the quest must continue. Could my wrists handle sanding? Would the primer smell cause brain damage to my cats and to me? I am going to do this on carpet and near my bedding?

The worst situation was using an old tarp my dad had given me from his garage. He had used it for other painting projects and it's probably 50 years old. My neighbors came over and put the pieces of furniture on this tarp. It was dirty and smelled like mildew 😓. I kept thinking it would air out. I need a tarp under this furniture. It lasted 1 1/2 days and one Tuesday morning I woke up and lifted the furniture corner by corner to move the tarp out of my room. It took 30 minutes and I threw it in the garage while still in my PJs. I used an old shower curtain liner I had from my house.

I learned about liquid sander and the primer smell wasn't too bad. Half way through week 4 I brought a chair into the working area to sit on while I was painting. My hips and knees have been so angry at me. I estimated 18 hours if I was going to do the 3 pieces of furniture. I only did 2 pieces of furniture and it probably took me 9 hours.

It's done and I really love my bedroom and bathroom! I do appreciate all of the Pintrest ideas and helping me believe my home can actually be beautiful. I have also looked up how to make words out of those LED light I bought, back splashes for kitchens and teracotta accent walls for my kitchen/living room 😂 which is about 2-3 household projects away.

Stay tuned for more lessons this project taught me.