It seems that when we set out to do something, it often doesn't go as smoothly as we envisioned. For this reason, a dear friend of ours has deemed our farm, "Farm Mishap." Farm mishap was in full swing yesterday.
One of the easy cosmetic things we've done to our house since moving in is
painting. It is amazing how a fresh coat of paint can brighten up a room and make it really feel like home. We have done the main part of the inside of the house but not the exterior. There is a breezeway room in our house that we affectionately call, 'the smoking room.' It is where most of our friends/family who smoke go to do so. It is a breezeway with two big barn doors overlooking the field behind our house, and it has a fireplace in it. It is a pretty amazing spot favored by many. Most of the smoking room is wood, but there is one wall that is painted.
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| Here's the before picture. The wall wasn't as pink as it looks in this picture, but the pink hue of the red made us want to redo it so the extra pink is appropriate for our justifications. :) |
We decided we wanted to paint the smoking room so that the wall wasn't so pink and also just to spice it up a bit. We chose another red color because I've always wanted to paint a room red. I was so excited for this project! The color we chose was called Hot Tamale, and it isn't as fire engine red as you're thinking based on that name. Quick plug, here -- we have been using
C2 paint, and if you don't know about it, you should. They have amazing colors, and it is great paint. The colors are really saturated, and it makes for much more dynamic colors.
OK -- here goes the project completion in picture form -- get ready.
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| Step 2 -- Taping. We're no professionals here, so we rely on good old fashioned paint tape. And, yes, I skipped Step 1 (sanding and washing the walls) -- turns out we didn't take too many pictures before....we'll call it the incident. Keep reading... |
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| Nothing like relaxing in the sun on a gorgeous fall day after putting on one coat of paint. Like I said, we lack pictures from Day 1. No fiascoes yet... |
Everything seems so benign at this point, right? Well, day 1 went really smoothly, and we were really happy with our color choice. Too bad we didn't photograph it at that point. After a couple days of drying, we decided to add a second and final coat.
All was going really well, we were about half way done when I grabbed onto the ladder to step off my step stool back onto the ground. Yeah, I grabbed the wrong side of the paint can shelf...
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| I felt the ladder shelf move, turned and saw in slow motion as a giant plume of red paint cascaded across the room. I screamed and then stood there paralyzed by disbelief as the remaining contents of the can poured onto the floor. Choice words were uttered. |
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| And then this happened. We may have left a few paw prints on the stones around the house since they're cute. |
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| Our friend Michael was about to go for a run when he heard me shriek. Luckily, he's really good at cleaning, and scrubbing floors is almost as good a workout as running....almost. |
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| The smoking room floor has never looked so good! We scrapped the rug that was in the room -- it was old and we weren't attached. Somehow the paint missed our squashes entirely, and only a little bit got on the couch. Hey, it's the smoking room, a little paint only adds character, right? PS - note the source of the painty paw prints in resting innocently in the doorway. |
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| The finished product -- painting friends, cover your eyes -- we may have harvested some paint from the rug to get the second coat hastily painted on while cleaning was happening. There was a bit left in the can, so I used what I could. It actually doesn't look half bad -- you'd almost never know I did it in 25 minutes. This picture makes the color look a bit more fire engine red than it actually is -- you'll have to visit to experience a cocktail in the smoking room with a fire and a great view. |
Being Farm Mishap has taught us many things. With each failure, we learn something new....like don't lean on the paint can shelf....on the part that goes down. In all honesty, though, we wouldn't have it any other way -- we have learned so much in the past year. I can't believe a year has gone by already. We have a ton of projects still going on, so look forward to more posts all fall and winter long.
