I painted for 5 hours last night. Hubby's been out of town, Sam arrives on Sunday and his room was still painted purple and white rag roll from the previous owner. Not the most manly place for a 17 year old guy to stay, so we're doing a whirlwind makeover. I kind of feel like I'm on Trading Spaces or something because I've never decorated a room this quickly before. I had a student over to help me paint on Wednesday night, but last night I was on my own.
Painting should always be a team sport in my book. We've painted 3 other rooms in our house so far and have a pretty good system where I cut in and do the edging while hubby rolls. So doing it all by myself last night was a bit overwhelming and quite time consuming.
However, being by myself allowed me to develop my own painting system. This is where the wiser, lazier, cheaper part comes in. Normally, if hubby was around we would tape off the entire room. That means the floor, the trim, the ceiling, E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. I wasn't feeling that patient last night (am I ever really feeling patient? God's still working on that) so I decided I was going to try cutting in by hand. I learned a couple of important lessons along the way.
One... painting the trim last makes so much sense. Who cares if you get the wall paint on the trim if you're going to sand, prime and paint over it anyway? I will tape off around the trim when I get to painting it though, because I learned I'm not as steady with the brush as I wish I was. But why do this step twice wasting precious time and tape?
Two...there are so many places around windows and doors that I would have spent in exorbitant amount of time taping off with the old method where no one will ever look. I'm going to put window treatments over the tops of the windows, so no one will ever see up there. And if someone is going to get down on the floor to check how well I edged under my window sills and then judge me for it, I don't want them in my house (or on my floor for that matter) to begin with.
Three... it IS important to tape off the ceiling. I tried doing this without tape and it was an epic fail. I'm pretty bad with straight lines: drawing them, cutting them, painting them. So tape is very worthwhile when it comes to the ceiling. Especially when you've already used up all the ceiling paint and don't have any left over for touch ups. Oops. Guess I'll be making another trip to the hardware store.
Even though this makeover is a major undertaking, I feel like it's giving my heart time to prepare and pray for Sam, much like a nesting new mom. I've had time this week to focus on how the Lord will have us serve Him by serving one of his children. And for that bit of grace, I'm extremely grateful.
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