Painting on Sunshine!

There's nothing like the anticipation of company coming to throw me into frantic home improvement mode. Truthfully, I am always grateful to have company come, not only for the joy that loved ones being close bring me, but also for the opportunity to deep clean my house!

Painting the sun room has been on the agenda for several months now. I believe I started painting it back in April in preparation for James' 40th birthday party on May 1st. I knew I wanted to paint it yellow, but yellow is a tricky color to choose and can be somewhat elusive. I went to Walmart during one of my micro shopping sprees--was in such a huge hurry, that I just picked the closest yellow I could find and in record speed, had them mix it for me, and home I flew. When I opened the can and saw the bright neon, sunny droplets sliding down the lid, I knew it was the wrong color. Just for fun I slapped some on the wall and squinted at it. Yikes! "Where are my shades?!?"

I knew it needed some brown to tone it down, but I only had a few drops in my little bottle of Delta. I went ahead and squeezed until the bottle wheezed and sputtered all of the paint it could out into the giant pool of liquid sunlight. Little brown droplets dissolved into the sun. The tint did not change. So, I used a bottle of black. What I had forgotten though, is that black is mostly green. And I added a lot. So now the sunlight was looking a little green around the gills. Sickly even. Just for kicks, I slapped some of it on the wall--then I named it--sour stomach (a color so hideous that not even Walmart would sell) where it remained in its sickly glory until . . . Glidden saved the day with a FREE quart sized sample!!! I went right to the website, clicked on the top ten colors, picked out Homemade Butterscotch, and BAM! in the mail it came!

It poured out like buttah! I almost wanted to taste it! Oooey Gooey Butterscotch! It rolled on thick and warm and I knew I had a winner. The only problem--a quart doesn't go very far. Luckily the room is mostly windows! I used my mini roller and mini pan and went to work.

I painted in sections to make sure I wouldn't run out in an obvious spot. I eyeballed the last bit. I am terrible at eyeballing! I had about 10 square feet left to go (give or take--I was eyeballing after all), and I started getting that sticky slurpy sound when the roller and the plastic start to peel apart from each other. Thirsty! I pushed harder and harder on the roller. I was kicking myself for being a little generous in the beginning with my Vs and Ws. I used my brush and painted until the dry sound of the brush on the wall gave me the willies. Only two more feet to go! Of course wouldn't you know it--it's the place your eye will go to first when peering into the room! But, it's also exactly where my plant will go, but still a plant can only hide so much wall. Push, push, roll, roll, brush b...r...u...s...h... Then I got a genius idea: a spray bottle of water! I desperately began spraying the roller and rolling it on the wall. Then I sprayed the tray. Then I turned as angels sang and saw the glorious paint can lid full of buttery butterscotch paint! My wall's saving grace.

In the right light, with your head tilted to the side, you can see where the paint is thin, or is it just the shadow from that terrific plant in the corner?

My sun room is transformed into a warm, inviting space where you'd want to curl up and read a book. Too bad it's like 300 degrees in that room in the summer and 20 below in winter!

Thanks for a job well done, Glidden! I LOVE your paint!


Ah, yes, moving on to the next project. Painting the doors. I had two very eager little helpers this day. I was feeling quite calm and a bit generous when they asked me if they could help. Just look at those faces! Who could say no?

Aren't they precious!

They had a great time painting and started hamming it up. That's a dangerous thing to do when armed with painting tools. They did a good job--nothing that I couldn't quickly smooth over after they went to bed. I continued painting this door and door jamb while they got ready for bed. They each came over and leaned against the door jamb to talk to me and got paint all over themselves! It was CRAZY!