JJ got safely home last night after being gone for a week. Of all the trips he’s had over the past few years where I’ve had to play single mom, this one was one of the longest. Thankfully, everything went very well. I had no anxiety attacks (yay!), the girls and I did fine, and I made time and opportunity to invite a few people over for meals a couple of times. It was kinda fun to be totally on my own!
The other big thing I did while JJ was gone was to paint an accent wall in our bedroom. JJ and I had talked about this in the weeks before he left, and we had agreed which wall we wanted to paint, and we agreed on a general color: burgandy red. However, before JJ even left, I decided that I would pain that wall while he was gone as a surprise for him.
So, he left on Thursday morning, and that afternoon, Jujubee and I were at H0me Dep0t, bedroom curtains in tow, browsing through paint chips. I considered getting a paint sample and trying it on the wall before actually buying an entire gallon, but in the end I made a choice and went for it. I picked a lovely dark burgandy red, called “Antique Ruby.” But, when I saw the actual paint in the can, I told the paint-mixer-upper-guy, “This is … pink.” He assured me that when it dried on the wall, it would look red.
Oh, boy.
After bringing the can of (pink? kind of purple-y?) paint home, I single-handedly moved our queen bed away from the wall about two feet. I moved the other pieces of furniture out of the way. I taped the edges of the wall and ceiling, removed the wall outlet covers, and spread the drop cloths over the carpet. All was ready for the next morning’s painting.
Friday morning, after getting the girls off to school, I dived right in and got one coat of paint on the wall. As I put it on with my roller, it looked very purpley-pink. “Well,” I said to myself, “the guy said it would dry red.” And, lo and behold, it did! It sill had a hint of purple in it, but the red tones definitely showed through.
One coat of paint was not nearly enough, especially with the dark intensity of this color. So, that afternoon, I put on another coat of paint. After that coat dried to it’s redder state, I realized that it would need one more coat. Taupe was still showing through in spots, despite my best efforts! So, that evening, after the girls were in bed, I put on a final coat of paint. That night the girls slept together in the guest room bed, and I slept on Jujubee’s brand new mattress in her room. (It sleeps very nice.)
The next morning I surveyed my efforts. The third coat did the trick; now the color looked even all around. But, I still wasn’t quite sure about the color. There was red in it, to be sure, but it seemed awfully … purple. It was definitely not the “antique ruby” color on the paint chip. (That’s probably because I didn’t prime the wall with white paint before I started; I just painted right over the taupe.) I did NOT want JJ coming home and saying, “Why did you paint the wall purple?”
So, then I agonized for a few days; do I sponge-paint a lighter color over it? I brought it a few other people to get their opinions on it, and everyone said it looked great the way it was. Most people said that, when the color was looked at next to the curtains and the bedspread, it looked better than the color I had picked out!
In the end, I left it as it was. I got all the furniture moved back, and I even got the bedskirt put on (with a little help from some friends). When JJ came home last night, he was very surprised, but very pleased with the end result. So, yay! He liked it!
I’ve never done any kind of painting project on my own before, so this was pretty exciting for me. I’m glad the end result turned out so well.
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PICTURES! The fabric at the bottom of the bed are the curtains I bought for the window, and I tried to match the wall color to them. The picture above our bed is an Ansel Adams photograph of the Grand Teton Mountains with the Snake River running below. I think that corner of the world is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.
Not Finished Yet 