painting

Sometimes there's a color all over your walls that's just not reflecting the real you. You look at the walls and you think; "This is just too bright, it's really not me anymore. What was I thinking when I painted them this color!" So you decide to cover over the bad color choice and put up something that really reflects who you are.

Choosing that color isn't always so simple. Do you want a warm or cool hue? Dark tone or light tint? Flat, Satin, Semi-gloss, or Enamel? Maybe you want a glaze over the primary color with a little rag rolling. It's all possible with a little patience and mental discipline. So you go to the hardware store and order the paint, custom mixed, just for your new look! Then you check it and if it looks OK, you cart it home and prepare to brush it on.

It's one thing to choose a new color, and it's another to actually apply it to the walls. Sometimes the walls are so full of dirt and grime you have to go at it with a scrubber to get all the scum to come off so the new paint will actually stick! The wall has dings and dents that you have to carefully cover with spackle, smooth, sand and prime before you can apply the new paint. In some places, especially the corners, there are cobwebs and an occasional spider lurking therein.

One coat is seldom adequate, most times two is needed, once in a while it takes three. But there are always areas you just can't cover up no matter how many coats of paint you put over them. Those just become part of the wall-scape and you have to learn to love them and live with them. Or better yet, work around them and integrate them into the overall look of the room!

Now before all this rejuvenation can take place there are obstacles you need to deal with that are in the room itself. You have to try to move the furniture away from the walls and find a way to cover it so it doesn't get all full of drips and splatters. This maneuver presents a new set of problems. It reveals all the clutter you've stowed away in all the little cubbie holes that makes the furniture so heavy you can't possibly move it away from the wall until you remove the excess.

And if you decide not to move that really heavy piece and just paint up to the edges, you will always know that the old color still exists behind that huge hutch or entertainment center, and someday, it will have to be moved revealing that old unsightly patch of wall. Who knows what could be festering behind that old over-stuffed hutch anyway, better to get in there and deal with it now before it grows unmanageable.

When all the obstacles are overcome, what a great feeling to have nice new walls surrounding you. A new perspective on the world, a new vantage point to observe your life. And now the spiders can move back in.