On to Painting

Today's project brought to you by Busy Hands Make the Time Go Faster Decorating Service - the hobby of choice for those with time on their hands.

Actually, today was all about painting (though I still have plenty to do). I started with the archway in our bedroom, which was previously painted red to accent the rest of the room in gold. Now that icy blue adorns all the walls, I thought deep brown would be a good choice; the color is called (appropriately) "bittersweet chocolate" and adds a nice touch of warmth to the much cooler room. (It also goes well with the new comforter I showed you yesterday.) All in all, this project wasn't too difficult or time consuming - at least until I started taking off the painter's tape. Now, I used a tape made specifically for newly painted walls. It is supposed to keep the dry (but not long cured) paint from peeling. Want to guess what it didn't do? So now I need to wait for the lovely brown to dry thoroughly before taping off my line again. I'm thinking about two weeks will do the trick. (Jeff just did some touch up on the bathroom side of the arch last Thursday, but the tape is supposed to work after only 24 hours. Humph.)

Here's the before - all in pale blue.

Here's the after with some deep brown added.

The dark brown within the arch ties in nicely to the
scroll work stickers I put up yesterday.

Before - The fireplace looked dingy with its fake stone paint treatment.

After - The fireplace looks clean and new.

Oh well, since I can't really fix the archway for awhile, I moved on to another project: painting the fire place surround. The surround we have was painted to look like limestone (or so the builder said) when we bought the house. Unfortunately, this has several draw backs. First, when the corner chipped, we couldn't match the paint very well. Second, it was difficult to clean because even the slightest pressure removed some of the design. Thus, when Jeff repainted the walls and thought the beige-brown mottled paint looked dingy, it became a prime opportunity to change the color. After a good deal of careful taping (This time the stuff worked well.) I applied two coats of bright white semi-gloss which made the whole thing look clean and bright, though it took quite awhile to complete because there are many niches and corners to go around with a brush. In addition, since it is cast out of some kind of plaster/resin to look like stone, it has a rather rough texture which requires the whole thing to be painted with a brush rather than a roller. Still, the final product looks great and the day passed quickly.


 Tomorrow's agenda may include some chair painting, but since I'm meeting other department members to work on the new curriculum standards I'll have to start early. I also have to choose some fabric for the chair seats. Take a look at the swatches below and let me know what you think.



This fabric is 60" wide upholstery weight for about 12.99 a
yard at Home Goods. The paisley is a classic design.

 

This, too, is upholstery fabric for $12.99 a yard.
I like the whimsical floral motif.



This is a heavy-weight cotton fabric I already have.
While it is not as contemporary as the other two choices, it doesn't cost anything.