Color at last

I've been in my house just over a year now (I know!) and I'm finally getting around to painting - at least one wall, anyway!

I've been looking at paint splotches for a loooong time, examining them in various lights, polling people, mulling it over, but mostly ignoring the blobs on the wall. I decided ages ago to go with the top-left one, but only actually got the paint two weeks ago. The wall I'm painting is central to the house - it divides the kitchen from the living room, and is one side of the long (only) hall that leads to the bedrooms and bathroom. My vision was inspired by an article in the NY Times last fall that showed an art gallery with a midnight-blue wall framing the art. I can't find the link but trust me - pretty. I've opted to have it the most matte (non-shiny) surface possible - the walls are quite textured and I want to downplay that as much as I can.

So, I've never painted my own space before, and have only assisted one time in memory. I was kinda faking it, but I spent a Friday night putting painter's tape up on all the surfaces adjacent to the painting area (walls, ceilings, door frames, baseboard). Then I spent Sunday afternoon cutting in - i.e. using a brush to paint from the baseboard up a few inches, around the edges of the walls, etc. For fun I also painted around all the swatches on the wall, to verify that the color was a perfect match for my choice. Then I used a roller to paint great swathes. Wow is a roller a lot faster than a brush!

It became clear when it dried that I'd have to do a second coat. This was a bit of a bummer, but I took the time to be really picky - which I very rarely am. I turned on all the lights and used a flashlight to examine the wall, and stuck some colored tape everywhere I thought I'd need to add paint. Today I finished during my lunch break, with a headlamp to really examine each area of the wall to be sure it's totally blue!

I'll examine it one more time to make sure I got it all, and then I'll peel the tape, fold up the tarp, and restore the furniture and face plates to the wall.

Someday I'll get around to printing photos and framing them. And then I'll deal with spotlighting them somehow. Baby steps - but I have 29 years before that mortgage is paid off, so huge hurry!