Painting is fun

Well, painting has been a learning experience. I started with the bathroom, thinking it would be the easiest room in my place... a very small room, out of the way, not very visible, easy to fix major screw ups... little did I know, I chose the hardest room in the place. So much trim! And so many awkward angles in such a small, enclosed area! The weekend was so packed with other activities, all I got done was the prep work: taping, draping, sanding, scraping... and then a coat of TSP.

Monday I was finally ready to lay down my first paint. It took me a while to build up the courage to slather that dark green liquid all over my perfect white walls. What an adrenaline rush once I finally got going, though! I used Glidden Tall Evergreen, a very deep, dark green. Honestly, the first coat looked horrible, and I'm not sure why I expected any different. It was incredibly uneven. Then again, I've learned it's a lost cause trying to get a dark color on top of white to look even halfway even on the first coat. My main fear was that the dark spots would only get darker, and the light spots would stay lighter, when I put on more paint.

With each successive coat, it looked better, though. And got more and more fun since I realized I could really do this. After the second coat dried, it was almost smooth enough to call it good! But I'm a perfectionist, so I went for three. The actual walls look awesome now. Incredible... I'm amazed how smooth they turned out.

The only thing that sucked was when I started peeling off the tape around the trim... in about two thirds of the cases, somehow the paint bled through and got on the trim. I was able to scrape it off of pretty much everything except the ceiling. The ceiling is going to take a bit of touch up, with a very tiny brush. You can only tell if you look up, though... :-)

It's still shocking walking into my bathroom and seeing green... but I love it. Some say dark colors make small rooms look even smaller, but I love it -- it gives it a sense of intimacy, coziness, that I didn't have before. I will post some pics as soon as I get a new shower curtain that goes with the color scheme better! Though taking pics in such a small room is always a challenge.

Next up, RED -- really bright Victorian Red. Downstairs on the wall opposite my blinding red furniture. Hopefully it will match...