Paint, You Are A Friend of Mine

 

How many times have you fallen in love with a piece of furniture, or piece of art, or accessory only to realize it just won’t work in your space.  But you love it, and it’s a great deal (or even if it’s not) and it would be perfect except for the one small detail – it’s colour.  Which is a big detail, really.

The solution I find that works the best for me, the most times, is, you guessed it, paint.  I think I have painted pretty much everything, without exception, in my home – at least once.  Daughter #2’s boyfriend asked the other night “What have you painted in this room? (in this case it was the living room)  Daughter and I simultaneously scanned the room.  “More like, what DIDN’T  she paint?” she says, and we laugh.  Don’t be too hard on him, YOU’VE  been with me longer than he has.  Every hard surface in that room had my paintbrush touch it.  Some soft surfaces too.  Why do I bother telling you this?  Like it’s a great revelation?  When we all check out Pinterest, magazines, decorating shows etc?  Because YOU think you can’t do it.  You are aware paint is the way to change the room you already have, the things you already own, in the least expensive, most dramatic way.  Even cheaper than second hand sometimes.  And usually, if you hate the way it changed said room/ item you can change it again.  Even take the paint off, if you must.  You know, but you are afraid.  Or lazy.  Or skeptical.  Or any combo of the aforementioned.  I am here to encourage you, entice you, convince you to try.  Just do it, as they say.  Practice makes perfect as they say also.  Be brave.  If you hate it, yes, it’s a pain in the butt to do it over, but geeze Louise make it work, or try again.  It’s how you learn your style.  If this is still too daunting, do your research a little bit more until you are comfortable venturing and dabbling.  Pay attention to what you are pinning or liking or what makes your heart beat a little faster.  Copy that style/ colour/ look.  Most things are tagged on social media as to what colour or source it comes from.  If after all this chit chat you are still unsure, just keep checking my posts out until you can’t handle my badgering any longer and to prove to me and you that you can certainly try it…well, DO!  I have total faith in you!

Ok there’s my lecture.  Now for some before and afters to get you thinking about paint in a new way (or at the very least, you can point and laugh, I’ll never know, unless of course you say so in a comment and I encourage you to do that, minus the barbed ones please) here are a few of my latest examples.

 

Here’s an experiment that kind of when sideways.  I had this ottoman in the other house, without the current area rug which is quite busy.

I didn’t want to buy a new one – especially after what I just said to you – so I purchased some Tulip fabric paint.

It works fairly well, if you are spraying a t-shirt, and not a large anything. I bought a few bottles at about $10 each.   Mistake.  I got that ottoman on sale for $32.00 so I thought even if I pay for this paint, I am still ahead.  But no.  Here’s how far I got with what I bought.

Oh dear.  So after a little research and a little self talk, I decided to try chalkpaint.  I’ve heard it’s great on any surface, even fabric.  What the heck, the ottoman is useless to me like that, so even though I could easily have made some homemade chalkpaint, I went ahead and purchased two spray cans of it made by my favourite, Rustoleum.  It would have cost me about the same to make it up with sample size paints and plaster of Paris etc, so there’s my logic.  I chose an ombre look, keeping the darker colour on top for all the feet that sully that ottoman.  The grey is similar to the sofa and the teal is in the carpet colouring.

Now I feel like it’s not too frenetic in there.  I love pattern, but it has to make sense or it feels chaotic and anything but inviting.  If you are wondering about how it feels?  It is a little stiffer, but not scratchy.  Fine for feet and the occasional dog.

Next, the front door.  Being in strata ruled homes, you have to follow their rules.  On the outside.  But not the inside…so, remember this door from the last house?

I wanted to repeat the process above but with a blue that you see in the living room rug below since you see both at the same time from the opposite side of the house.  Notice the pretty blue?  And also the coffee and end tables, vinyl ottoman and sliver of sideboard? (all painted).

   

I taped off the white door the same way as the last house, painted the lower half blue and then thought that perhaps this should be a little different than the last door, otherwise how on earth would I continue to entertain you if all I did was repeat my stuff??  So, I repeated the taping but on the upper portion, in the opposite direction.  My plan was to just paint these areas blue.  And then what could have been a disaster turned into a happy accident!  Only it took a few minutes to see it that way.  At first it was just a DISASTER.  When I peeled off the painter’s tape to reveal my sharp clean line of division, it pulled off the white paint with it….Oy.

Whoever had painted the door last had painted latex over oil without prepping it with a plastic primer first.  This causes the latex to just kind of sit on top of the oil paint, never really curing it to a hard surface.  Underneath that glossy white was my favourite.  Beige.  Uh huh.  Just when I thought I had rid myself of that dastardly “colour”, it rears it’s insipid head again.  But wait!  It kinda looks good with the tealy blue.  Hmmmm. Time to rethink.  After the shock of the beige wore off, I was able to look at the door with new beige accepting eyes.  Then I noticed that my brain tried to form a triangle with the shapes I had painted.  Don’t tell me that’s weird.?…  I then imagined the point, and what colour it could/should be.  Charcoal in the sofa, charcoal in the newly painted ottoman, charcoal in the adjacent spare room, washroom and rug.  Duh!  A charcoal point it is.  I am so stoked about how it turned out.  So fun! So there it is in all it’s beige glory beside the painted key hook and painted stool close to the soon to be embellished rug.

One more!  My lovely sideboard.  This sideboard has been with me for some time.  When I was trying to make a career in decorative painting, I painted a woman’s kitchen floor (temporarily subflooring at the time since they couldn’t afford to do more for a bit) and in barter fashion, she paid me in sideboard.  It was wood, and I kept it wood for some time.  And of course you know that didn’t last.  Here it is in white with crystal knobs which looks grey in the pic.  I never said I was a photographer… sorry…the edit capabilities of WordPress are minimal at best.

And here it is now in all it’s Kelly green glory.  The original colour was much brighter.  Too bright, I thought.  I Added a bottle of black craft paint which took the edge off, and I turned it into chalk paint by adding plaster of Paris.  I changed the knobs from crystal to brushed gold that matches the kitchen hardware.  I’m loving the new vibrant TV stand.  Usually not a fan of this shade of green, it’s a happy surprise that it feels right.  But you know, if I don’t love it forever…..

 

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