Saturday, June 13, 2009

Nursery Nightmare

Let me preface this post by saying that it's going to be long. I do apologize for the length, however, I feel it is necessary to inform you of my frustrations with painting and my vow to NEVER paint stripes again. Now, on to the post:

After getting Jeremy to agree on me getting new bedding for Carlyle, I found some at a great price that was really cute! So, I ordered it and when it came in I started looking at it and thought that maybe painting the room in stripes would be good. Jeremy had helped his brother paint stripes in on of their rooms and immediately said, "NO". Of course, he wasn't serious (at least I didn't take it that way). I knew it was a lot of work, but his brother said he would come help measure and tape the walls for stripes. So, I took part of the bedding with me to Lowe's to get some paint samples. I started off with pink because from first glance you would think that the bedding had true pink in it. Well, every pink sample I put up to it clashed. So, I moved on to the more peachy pinks, which seemed to match more. I grabbed about ten samples and headed off to take Camden to church for choir. While I was there I asked several ladies their opinion on samples. They immediately said that the pink did not match and then we spent an hour debating over which peachy pink samples looked better. After all that, we finally decided on a lighter color for the base coat and a darker color for the stripes. I went the next day and got the paint and went to work. I got two coats of the lighter color done. That sat for a couple of weeks until my brother-in-law could come over and help measure and tape for stripes. This past Sunday he came over and spent about three hours getting it all ready to paint. That night I let Jeremy take care of the girls and I painted the stripes. It looked SO good. Monday I touched up and I thought I was done!! For some STUPID reason I painted the whole room and never thought to get the bedding out to see how it looked up next to the walls. This past Wednesday I was moving stuff out of the closet and got the bedding out. After taking it out of the bag I knew immediately that it did not match. I was so mad! It was definitely more of a pink that peach. I called Jeremy and told him. On the phone he seemed very calm and was very supportive of WHATEVER I wanted to do. I called my mom and had her stop by on her way home from work to get her opinion. Jeremy's parents were coming over for dinner so I knew I could get their opinion, too. Both moms said I needed to repaint. Exactly what I didn't want to hear. Jeremy told me to find some bedding to match the walls...easier said than done! What happened to his supportive attitude?? He did comply with my request to paint again. So, I went back to Lowe's that night and got a gallon of Kilz, two gallons of base coat and one gallon of paint for the darker stripes, along with LOTS MORE TAPE and a laser level. I didn't want to have to ask my brother-in-law to come back over (which I'm sure he was relieved about). I taped the baseboards that night and then on Thursday I painted one coat of Kilz, two coats of base coat. Then when the girls went to bed Jeremy helped me measure for the stripes. I taped each and every stripe, which took until about 12:30am. I was determined to finish that night (or should we say morning). I pulled out the paint and painted each stripe. After the first stripe, I pulled out the bedding to check how it looked. I did learn a thing or two from my first experience with painting. Anyway, I finished around 3am and was SO pleased with the results. Here's a preview of what Carlyle's nursery looks like...minus decor and bedding, of course. And for those of you who are wondering why my husband didn't help...he did offer. But, I am very anal about it being a certain way and politely declined his offer to help. So, don't put him in the doghouse just yet:)

4 comments:

Jennifer said...

Looks GREAT! All of that hard work paid off!

heartlandfamily said...

I love the stripes! Sorry you had to go through all of that. I'm with Jeremy. I probably would have just found new bedding :) But I'm lazy that way! ha!

Ruth Lee said...

Beautiful!!

Adam, Kristen, and Hallie said...

Love the stripes!!! I know your pain with stripes, but oh they look so good once there done!