Sunday, September 5, 2010

Painting will be the death of me

It all started out so promising. First the preamble: after living so cluttered in SoCal, I have made it goal to be organized from the get go, which means finding a place for everything. But I also want to fulfill a long-standing desire to have the walls painted--something I didn't accomplish in the 9 years living in the last house (save for 2 rooms). I know a key reason I didn't paint was the daunting (at least to me, given how cluttered we were) task of moving/clearing stuff from a loaded room to paint the walls. So I thought I figured to accomplish these two goals, it would mean delaying unpacking until the walls are done first. So I planned to paint the girl's room and a spare room (which has become the default storage/sorting room) this weekend.


I decided to do the spare room first--I was excited to take this sunshine (or "Hint of Honey") in a can and roll it out (I even invested in a drop cloth and taped off some areas):


Another disclaimer: I am not a professional. I will take any shortcuts I can get away with. Though frankly, through experience, little by little, I have come to realize that some shortcuts are not worth it (e.g., I now use a little stepladder instead of trying to use something at hand, like an office chair on wheels, stack of books, etc.). Now, since I used paint that had primer mixed in and it covered well enough in one coat for the garage, I bought a similar paint at Lowe's (I had a 10% coupon) that also had primer and paint together. So here it comes: I didn't use primer on these beige/Swiss coffee walls before rolling on the sunshine. The first coat dried fairly blotchy (though the real sunshine is washing it out in the pic) and I feel I could see patches of Swiss coffee peeking out:


The second coat helped somewhat with the patchiness (though I still notice an occasional glaring patch and corner seams, where the paint seems translucent) but I'm also disappointed by the clarity of my roller strokes, which are all over. I went online and googled my sitch. Apparently my paint job has the hallmarks of a painting amateur (unevenness is due "lapping"--rolling wet paint over dry--making denser patches of color) and cheap paint. What were some of the solutions?

1) One answer was to use a glazing technique (sponging or smooshing on glaze in a similar color) that creates a visual texture on the wall, ergo taking advantage of the blotchy paint job.
2) Another said get a 3/4" nap roller (I was using 3/8") and roll on a coat of "good" paint
3) Another said to start all over (primer, paint, etc.)

So far, lazy me is leaning towards #2. Though a part of me is hoping/dreaming that a third coat will take care of everything. Does anybody else have any suggestions? Also disappointing was how long this took--it pretty much took me all day to do ONE room. Before I do the girl's room, I will at least invest in primer.

But the day wasn't totally frustrating: got to try sandwiches from Jimmy John's. I'm on the look out for the best sub sandwich. The girl liked her JJBLT sub, which was basically a big bacon sub sandwich. The #6 Vegetarian was pretty good:


Which reminds me, I have got to join a gym soon.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hear you big time about the painting! That is my absolute least favorite home improvement activity. I much prefer demolition :) In my opinion you have the right idea - paint right away and get it over with.
Good luck!
Joanne

Pound said...

that is mighty yellow! i'd say just get some good paint and do 1 more coat.

Unknown said...

Do NOT do option #1... That became passe' 10 yrs ago (yes, that is my inner metro talking)... watch HGTV if you don't believe me. I've helped my mom a lot w/ painting over the years and we don't seem to have the issues you are talking about.. I'm not sure if that is b/c she is using more expensive paint, lighter colors, or a less glossy shine. Apparently bathrooms are the only rooms that should have the more glossy paint, while bedrooms/living rooms etc should have very little. (i don't know all the terms off the top of my head, but I'm sure a good paint store or a decent paint dude at Home Depot can fill in the gaps).

A new coat of paint can help freshen up a room so much... don't give up!