The Quintessence of Life as a Wesley Wife: Painting

Starting with the Confession :

I like to paint . . . Walls . . . A lot. Ask anyone.

I don't know what it is about it, but when I feel stressed, or bored, or want to be creative, I always resort to picking a blank wall, choosing a color, finding a paintbrush, and begin taping off (with frog tape, of course).

And no, it isn't the paint fumes.

It's more of, you can:

express yourself using colors
see a before & after
change the whole mood of the room
feel like you've given your arms a good (and much needed) workout
choose the paint color just because you love it's name (Sometimes it works, and sometimes . . . not so much)

A LITTLE HISTORICAL STORY

It began when I was 7.

We moved to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, USA. This house, let me tell you, was the definition of a wallpaper-happy home! EVERY wall in the house had wallpaper, and not just one layer. Oh no, it couldn't be just that easy. It was more like two layers and I am even tempted to say some had three layers, but that would probably be a bit of an exaggeration (Although I wouldn't be surprised if there was, and I am just blocking it out of my memory).

The hatred for Wallpaper and the love for Paint was planted.

(Slight confession #2, I do contemplate wallpaper now, as an accent wall, ONLY. Entire house, NEVER)

Painting Experience 1: Age 7.

My bedroom. . . drum roll. . . was black and white checkered wallpaper with drag racing cars all over it. You got dizzy just looking at it. So, long story short, my room was painted a carnation pink with mint green furniture. (Yes, girly, extremely girly).

(Hopefully a BEFORE photo To Come. I'll have to do some diggin'.)

AFTER

Painting Experience 2: Age 12.

Shortly after I got tired of that, I begged my mom for years (yes, years) to let me paint it something "more mature". Turquoise, Orange, Yellow, and Lime Green. (Wait, did I say "more mature"?!?!) Of course I loved it at the time. It was a "when you can't choose one, why not have them all" decision.

Notice the remaining mint green furniture ( :

Painting Experience 3: Age 14

Moved to Norman, Oklahoma. Bedroom was a blank white slate and my dad would have preferred to keep it that way ( : I on the other hand, had matured a whole two years and decided that I would choose just one color. What an improvement. Just the Lime Green this time. eh.

Former Rocky Yoshi Mister DiGiorgio taking a nap in the Serene Lime Green room.

Painting Experience 4: Age 18

Go to college and move into one of Grandma's apartments on campus, but first. . . paint every wall. Neutrals. (I finally learned.)

BEFORE

AFTER

Skip a few years, get married, live in a townhouse where you CAN'T paint. Ugh.

Then, finally. . . buy a house with light beige walls EVERYWHERE! Can we say, a CLEAN CANVAS just askin' to be painted?

Umm, yes.

Painting Experience 5, 6, 7, and so on. . .

Here we are,

told you ALL OF THAT to just basically say, summer is here and I'm getting an itch for painting again. . .

And after doing A LOT of this,

your input would be appreciated.

Ending with the Question:

Martha Stewart's Lemon Ice?

Don't know if it's the color I like, or if it's just the name. hah!

Or more visually,

Notice how different the colors look on the walls versus the swatches
due to the different lighting (. . . and low quality camera)! CRAZY!

Normally I would never take time to paint a laundry room. . . but since we are now going on snowed-in day No. 4, and we had some sheet rock work done to it last fall, (due to some minor water damage), I decided to take on the project. Now, because the laundry room is never really seen, I thought I would be creative and have some fun with it.

A couple chevron walls from my "b-boppin" inspirational folder :

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this Wall

You can do this in just about any room.

Step 1. Pick your wall (Mine, as mentioned earlier is a wall in the laundry room)

Step 2. Measure out how many lines you want, then tape off. This is the trickiest and most time consuming part. I use FROG tape (I don't know what I would do without it). Having a level laser helps too.