Paige paints (part one)

I have been hemming and hawing over my bedroom and how to make it into what I want it to be for about 8 years. I’ve rearranged, made curtains and changed the bedding. I’ve even written to Nate Berkus for help. He has not responded, darn. You may remember last year when I tried to win a bedroom makeover by Mandi? That didn’t pan out, either.

This summer, I bought a cute quilt for my bed, and rearranged the bed yet AGAIN, trying to find some inspiration and get motivated to do what I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Paint. But for various reasons, (a-vaulted ceiling, b-can’t decide on a color, c-can’t decide the best thing to do with the dumb windows that are not symetrical, d-where exactly is the best place for the bed, e-it’s a pain) in 10 years that we have lived here, our bedroom was still NOT painted.

Well, about a week and half ago, my husband informed me that he was getting a tv for our bedroom. Not just any tv, a WALL MOUNTED TV. Not a wall mounted TV! Then I’ll NEVER get to paint. It must be done immediately. So, I went to the paint store, and within 20 minutes had picked out my paint. It was a snowy day, and there was a guy behind me in line at Ace Hardware buying salt. He saw me with my paint and supplies and said, “Ugh, looks like someone’s got a painting project.” I said, “I would much rather paint than shovel snow,” and I left happy.

I couldn’t wait to slap some of that color on the walls. But darn it all if I spent most of my day removing faceplates and moving furniture and washing walls so that I could paint. I use the swiffer duster on the high parts of the walls, just to dust before I wash. I couldn’t wait any longer, I had to just see how it looked.

Here’s some before pictures, and please try to ignore the total chaos that is our room. Instead of moving all the furniture out like you probably should do, I just pile stuff on the bed and move things around a bit.

To pick a color, I took my pillow sham in with me, and picked a color that would match the green. I decided to go bold, and choose a paint called ‘Granny Smith’. Here I was comparing it to the bedspread. Isn’t that a great color? I just knew it would make me happy. And I hoped that hubby wouldn’t hate it.

Once it was on the walls, I couldn’t believe how much I liked it. And Look! The windows just seem to stand out and look so white and pretty! When Ryan came home, he was a bit surprised that I went ahead and started painting even though I didn’t have the right ladder. But when he saw what I had done, he said, “I like that color.” Big sigh of relief. I’ve heard that paint color and furniture are things you should never pick out without your husband. Oops on both counts. But he has pretty much given me free reign to decorate how I would like, so I wasn’t too worried.

I love when a color just feels right. I’ve said before that it’s like the walls were just waiting for me to pick the right color and get them painted. And these poor walls have been off white and boring for a long time. Poor walls.

We had to break out the BIG ladder to do this job. That’s actually not our ladder, we had to borrow it from Ryan’s sister and brother-in-law, and it helped a lot. We couldn’t reach the high vaulted ceiling with just our regular ladder.

And can I mention how much I love the paint stick? You suck the paint into the handle, and then there is no need for pouring the paint into a pan. You still have to edge and stuff, but it makes it so much easier to use one of these paint sticks. Of course, this particular model wouldn’t work for me, after having used it to paint the last 3 rooms, so I opened up a new one I had stashed from the last time I found it on sale. It’s a little bit more complicated to put together and more of a pain to clean, but still well worth it for any painting job.

And there’s the old tv against the nice newly painted green wall.

Stay tuned for pictures of the OTHER wall and see what color we painted that, and pictures of the room when I get everything all put back together.