The Rules of Painting

Continuing on our closet adventure, we reach the fun part. After months of taking down hardware,  spackling, sanding, and caulking, it was time to paint! Painting, while not the most enjoyable activity, is for me one of my favorite home improvements because the drama is immediate. The whole space changes within just a day or two.

Step one, not pictured, was to paint the ceiling. After not painting for several years, I forgot our painter rule #1: use good tools. I started out using no tools at all. As I started gathering up our painting tools, scattered around our basement since our last paint job almost three years ago, I realized that our paint roller tray was covered in rust. Probably not a good thing to ix paint in. I also couldn't find any stirrers or paint can openers, even though I knew we had many lying around. So we sent a runner to the store and ended up with a paint tray that came with rollers and brushes. I should know better. I do know better. But it was so temping to just open the kit and go. So rather than use my much better Purdy brushes and rollers, I used the cheap ones that came in the kit. Big mistake.

It probably isn't noticeable to anyone but me, but the ceiling (my first foray into painting for years) looks too textured now, because the roller nap was cheap and a bad fit for our smooth ceiling. But hey, it's a ceiling and it is now white rather than light yellow. And after I pulled yet another brush bristle off the edges where I was cutting in, I finally remembered to seek out our good brushes and dump that one in the craft bin for the kids.

Another fun side note about this project--this is literally the first time I've ever used a paint roller. Yes it's true. After painting an apartment and then a whole house, this is--to my knowledge--the only time I haven't been just the "cutting in" person. D has always done the rolling (see examples here, here, and here.) Since this has always been "my" project, I did it all. And so, ladies and gentleman, after about 15 years of painting, I felt the reward of rolling. (Seriously, it's so much more fun. I'm not being sarcastic here at all. All that painful cutting in for such small payoff and then roll and BAM, new look.) So first, the ceiling. A lot less fun and a lot less payoff than the walls, but it was a start (moving from vaguely yellow to slightly-too-bumpy white--not quite the drama I was looking for).

Then it was on to the REAL painting. I already knew that I wanted a color, despite this being a closet (I have a history here--see my lovely aqua walk-in bedroom closet). I thought I would go for a super light, almost-white purple. Here were the swatches we selected from Home Depot.

Do you have a favorite? Here's where we broke painter rule #2: don't let a kindergartner pick your color. I would probably have picked the one on the lower right or any of the pale ones along the left. But those were too light for my kid, who'd come to the store with me with promises that she could select the color with minimal parental veto. So she chose Foxglove, on the back right. It was on the same scale as the one I preferred just below it--just one notch darker. Her sad little face when I tried to convince her to go lighter made me relent. Foxglove it was.

Then I broke painter rule #3: buy all the paint you need. I somehow believed that one quart would be enough for such a small closet, especially when I saw how expensive the paint base was. And so we came home with one quart of paint. I thought I was ready to go. Then we did some math for square feet of wall space vs. what the can said it could cover. Suddenly we weren't sure. And I definitely did not want to run the risk of having to buy a second can when halfway complete, given that dye lots aren't always consistent and I might not be able to just start on a second can seamlessly.

So armed with a picture of the first can, Grandma went to the store to buy a second can before we started (that way we could mix the paint before beginning, to even out any color inconsistency). What did the paint department employee send her home with? Take a good look and see if you can spot the problem:

Apparently Behr paint comes in Foxglove and Foxgloves. Both valid colors for their Marquee line, both purplish (i.e. not particularly noticeable if you're not paying attention) and both very different. In addition, Foxglove (no "s") had a one-coat guarantee but Foxgloves (with the "s") did not. We discovered this difference, of course, roller and brush in hand, dressed in paint clothes and ready to go. *Big sigh.* It was off to the store again.

To be continued...