How I managed to turn a 4-6 hour repainting project into a three-day repaiting project is beyond my husband’s comprehension, but he was out of town on business when I decided to repaint our studio apartment-size space all by myself.
(Sidebar: This three-day repainting project is one of the reasons why I haven’t posted a blog since last week… sorry about that!)
A couple of months ago, I purchased three gallons of paint – two gallons of ColorPlace paint in Pearl Gray and one gallon of ColorPlace paint in Marshmellow White. On a whim one evening, I stopped by the paint section in Wal-Mart. I found the discounted gallons of paints and found one gallon of Pearl Gray and one gallon of Marshmellow White. They were 50% off, so I was able to get them for $8.47 each! What a bargain! Then a few weeks later, I went back to Wal-Mart and found another gallon of Pearl Gray paint!
I also purchased two gallons of ColorPlace paint in Pearl Gray for $8.47 per gallon.
Again… What a bargain!
I didn’t really know what color I wanted to repaint our living space, but I knew I was over the tan walls with the western border around the top. So after finding these three gallons of paint for less than a total of $30, it was decided… I would paint the ceiling Marshmellow White and the walls Pearl Gray!
My husband and I moved into the studio apartment above his grandmother’s garage in 2002 and I spent a couple of days painting the ceiling and the walls and hand-stenciling the western border around the top of the walls.
(Sidebar: My husband and I had a western theme wedding complete with cowboy boots and cowboy hats. I didn’t wear a cowgirl hat, but I did wear my cowgirl boots under my wedding dress! And my husband was a bullrider back in those days, so we really embraced the whole western theme.)
We have divided our small living space into a living room and a bedroom. My husband’s grandmother’s house, which was built by his grandfather back in the 1950’s, only has one bathroom and it’s in the main house. So we have to cross through the breezeway to use the facilities (a.k.a., the bathroom) and to use the kitchen, which is fine because we realized a long time ago that we didn’t need a whole lot of space. Mind you, we want a lot of space but we don’t actually need it.
Anyway… I was able to Kilz the border without having to move any furniture, but I draped all the furniture anyway! Also, I didn’t move any furniture to paint the ceiling as everything was draped within an inch of its life.
After Kilz-ing the border and painting the ceiling on Friday, I decided to call it quits for the day.
On Saturday, I woke up with sore shoulders and sore arms. Maybe I should have taken a hot bath with Epsom Salts on Friday night!
By lunchtime on Saturday, I had moved the couch and our bed away from the walls and began taping off the baseboards, which I had painted black in 2002. I decided that because the room would be so light and airy with these new paint colors that the black baseboards and any black trim pieces would need to be repainted. I even painted the closet doors (we have two closets) and our front door.
At first I thought I’d wait until my husband got home before I painted the other two walls because the TV, my desk, and our heavy dressers are against those walls. But on Sunday, after lunch, I pulled things off of our TV stand, pulled four drawers out of my desk, and pulled two drawers out of both mine and my husband’s dressers. Then I pulled everything away from the last two unpainted walls and got to work.
What a mess! (And yes, I was watching/listening to “Keeping up with the Kardashians”!)
With the room completely painted (three coats on the ceiling and two coats on the walls), I was ready for some rest! I decided not to move everything back to its original place because (1) I was tired, (2) I wanted to make sure the walls were completely dry before pushing the furniture back in place, and (3) I wanted to go through my desk and my bookcase and clean out the clutter. By the time I cleared off the couch, I was pretty tired. At the end of the night, I ended up falling asleep on our couch (which isn’t very comfortable if you’re a side-sleeper, like myself).
I spent several hours on Monday going through my desk drawers and my small bookcase. I tossed a lot of stuff I no longer needed (three small garbage bags full), because I figure if I didn’t use it or look at it in the past year or so then I didn’t need it. I also cleared out a large stack of magazines from my bookcase.
Through this whole repainting process, I only stepped in paint once! And I ended up with some paint on my legs and arms, but that’s only because when I goofed up and a droplet of paint fell on the floor, I quickly wiped it up and then wiped it on either my legs or my arms.
Overall, this experience has taught me “Patience, grasshopper.” It was very therapeutic and calming, but also very tiring. My edges may not be perfect, but neither am I. So in a sense, our refreshed living space is perfect!
But I’ll tell you this… I won’t be painting or repainting anything else anytime soon!
