I got to check one thing off my to do list, we got the upstairs hallway painted! And when I say we, I mean that I had some helpers. I have a confession to make, I am a detail-oriented, kind of picky person about certain things. And painting is one of those things. My kids would beg to help and I would always tell them they weren’t old enough because I felt like I could do it easier and faster and better by myself.
Well, I had a change of heart on that. When I went to the Becoming conference two of the topics they talked about a lot were that something doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful and the importance of spending time with your children. And one of the ways they suggest spending time with your children is involving them in projects. So…I went Monday morning and bought a second paint roller and Monday afternoon we all painted. (Disclaimer here: I did not totally let go of my pickiness, I did all the cutting in before I let them start painting. But they did hang out with me and we turned on the radio and listened to music together while I did that part.)
Are you wondering why my hallway needed painting? If you have small children and have lived in a house for more than a week you know why. But for picture’s sake, let assume that you don’t. This would be one reason why…just a few scuff marks. And they wouldn’t wash off. That paint was flat finish and when I’d try to wash it the paint would literally wash off the wall. Also, having a white hallway was just asking for it.
Reason number two…a knee-sized hole in the wall. I should have taken a picture before I patched it, but I kind of forgot. How does a knee-sized hole get in the wall? As it was explained to me, someone was trying to do a handstand against one wall, lost their balance and their knee hit the wall on the opposite side. To be fair, she felt really, really, really, bad about it. I explained to her that there are studs in walls and if she’d hit one of those she could have broken her kneecap and maybe it would be a better idea to do handstands in other places besides hallways. I bought a wall patch kit from Lowe’s to fix it and I must say I did quite a bang up job…you can’t even tell where the hole was now.
When it comes to cutting in I only use tape around the ceiling. Around baseboards and door frames I don’t see the point in it, it takes longer to apply the tape than it does to actually paint it. But against the ceiling I cannot get a straight line, so to me it’s worth using tape there. I used to hate tape because whatever color I was painting would bleed under the tape edge, completely eliminating the reason for using tape. But when I was painting the stripes in Samantha’s room I found a tip online that said to first paint over the tape with the base color so that color would seal the edge and any that bled through wouldn’t matter. Then go back over it with the new color. It works like a charm. See, here I painted over the tape edge first with the ceiling color to seal it, then I went back over it with the new wall color. Yes, it is an extra step, but one that’s worth it to me. Also, make sure to remove the tape as soon as you finish painting. Don’t wait for the paint to dry or the tape will pull some of the paint off with it. I forgot that tip on this project and didn’t remove the tape until about three hours later and I can say from experience it does make a difference.
After all that cutting in then the fun could start. Charlotte and Samantha rolled the whole hallway as far up as they could reach, about two-thirds of the way. I finished the top third and it was done! I really thought they’d get tired of it but they did two coats and talked and talked about how fun it was. Samantha even said she wished I’d gone to that conference a lot sooner, haha!
Despite the slightly careless looking nature of the rolling I can say that no paint got on any carpet
. I did have to wipe a little off the white trim, but that’s okay, I have to do that when I paint also.
And here’s the before and after shot…much cleaner looking, in more ways than one. If you look really closely you can see the patched hole about halfway down on the left side of the before picture, but hopefully you can’t see it in the after shot. This is the same color I painted our stairway and the main part of the downstairs. It’s Wedgewood Gray by Benjamin Moore in an eggshell finish and I’ve been very happy with it. Smudges and fingerprints don’t show and it’s much easier to wipe down than a flat finish.
We have plans to do something creative on that long wall and they are very excited about it. It’s a project that’ll take us a while, and we’ll probably do it a little at a time, but I’ll make sure to update the blog when we get some of it done. Now, maybe this weekend I can get something else from my list done!
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