I’ve always like to paint. Well, that’s not quite true. I don’t necessarily like to paint, but I love the inexpensive transformation a can of paint can make to any room. I’ve lived in my house for almost 30 years and over that time, I’ve painted every surface at least once, and some places multiple times. After my divorce, I painted my bedroom pink with a flower border just because I could; it was my space and mine alone. Borders were all the rage back then 20+ years ago. I had borders in bedrooms, in my kitchen, bathroom and dining room.

When we first moved into the house; the kitchen, dining room, bathrooms and hallways were all wallpapered. I thought it was kind of neat since I’d never really lived in a home with wallpaper. That is,  until the day my GQ brother came to my house and asked when I was getting rid of the atrocious wallpaper.  I proceeded to rip off the wallpaper and I do mean rip off. Having had no experience with wallpaper, I didn’t realize that by “ripping” the wallpaper off, in some areas I succeeded in ripping off the top layer of the wall board too. When I finally got around to removing the wallpaper in the master bath, it came off in little strips. I used all the right stuff too. I scored it; I used water; I used wallpaper remover, nothing worked. For once, I was fortunate that my bathroom was rather small and only two walls were papered. It took several days to get all the wallpaper off.

I’ve always been the type that I painted around the furniture. That doesn’t mean I didn’t paint all the walls, it means that I would just move the furniture away from the wall. I remember one time when I was painting my son’s bedroom; it was so crammed in there that I stepped over one piece of furniture only to have it topple sideways and send me flying. So, I have a lot of painting experience. I’ve painted enough that I don’t tape off anymore. I’ve learned to use a brush and cut in the paint. Saves a ton of time.

About ten years ago, I thought I would move outside my comfort zone of neutral colors and paint the living room apple green. It was a very bold move on my part because generally  I only like “pops” of color. (Thank you HGTV for that saying and for “price point”). This was the first time I completely emptied a room to paint because I wanted to clean and wax the hardwood floor too. I got all done and was feeling very proud of myself; of my courageous move to an exciting, bold color. I moved my tan couch and love seat into the room, along with all the other furnishings, and HATED how the green looked with the color of the couch and love seat. Both of those items are very traditional, not a compliment to apple green. About two weeks later, I repainted the room a light teal green. It stayed a light teal until about six months ago when I decided to change the paint color to a blue.

I always go to the hardware store and get the little paint sample cards and put them up on the wall to help me decide which color I want. Before I leave the store with my paint samples, I place them under the little light boxes which are supposed to replicate sunlight, incandescent and florescent lighting. It’s supposed to give you an idea of what the paint color will look like under different lighting, but to be honest; what can you tell from a 2″ x 3″ square? I chose a bluish gray. I liked the color during the day, but at night it almost seemed to have a purplish tone to it.

I complained about the paint color for a couple weeks and finally decided if I bought a new rug, I would like it better. There was no blue of any type in my rug, just tans, greens and oranges. I ordered a new rug that had blacks and gray/blues in it and it made a wonderful change to the room.

But still, when I would sit in my chair at night and look at the wall, I hated the color. I finally decided that I would bite the bullet and repaint the room…again.

I’ve painted the room a creamy white and my daughter-in-law swears that by September it will be painted again. She may be right.

What do you think? (Other than this is a really crappy photo.)