Thursday, April 7, 2011

We All Make Mistakes...

Like I've said before, we all have painting disasters every now and then.  At least, that is what I tell myself to make me feel better because I have painting disasters every now and then.  It is always my fault.  I will do something by just jumping into it and figuring it out all by myself as I go along!  Not always the best approach.  My first painting project in my new house was going to be tackling the basement.
Now from this picture, the walls don't look that bad... but they were really beat up, looked horrible and needed a fresh coat of paint and I wanted to paint the trim white.
At this point, I had never painted a room before. I could have (and should have) asked my mother-in-law for help. She lives 10 minutes away, has great style and knows what she is doing.... but I was stubborn.  She didn't understand why I was starting with the hardest room to paint - our wood paneled basement. Well, I'll show her and everyone else by doing it all by myself! This included picking a color all by myself (which I had never done before and had no idea where to start).  I had an idea in mind of what I wanted but I couldn't figure out how to get that color so I randomly picked a color I thought was close to what I had in mind.
I didn't really have any furniture down there yet so I didn't have any colors to go off of and didn't think to use a neutral color (duh).
I painted one small wall and didn't really like it but thought... well lets make it one shade darker and then I bought two cans of paint. I could tell I hated it but was determined to paint the entire basement and figured it would grow on me!
I had tossed and turned at night and had nightmares about this room.  I tried to convince myself I loved it and who cares what everyone thought.  Truthfully, I hated it. We all hated it and I don't know what I was thinking.
I went on to paint the rest of the house and then had to come back and re-paint the basement.
I remember telling my mother-in-law I wanted to repaint it because I just couldn't live with it anymore.... I let her pick a color for me, I trusted her judgment over mine!  She chose Sherwin Williams Irish Creme.... and I couldn't be happier!
In the pictures it looks a lot like it did to begin with, but I swear it looks a 100% better!
There was still this problem though... when you walk into the basement/family room you had to walk up and down these old beat up stairs.
I did some research online and decided I could make them look better, with some sanding, white paint and poly.  It took a couple weeks to finish but I'm very happy I did it!
(Since this picture, I ended up painting the rest of the railing white.)
I wish I had pictures of my bathroom before and after. It was a hideous yellow-lime green, even the ceiling. I painted it white, but the white made the white tile look old and dingy.   I matched a white to the tile and had to re-painted the bathroom.  I have painted every room in the house, some rooms twice!  The only room we haven't painted is the spare bedroom/office/soon to be nursery.... which I can tell you now, it wont be any shade of green.... I'm scared to ever paint anything any shade of green... ever!  I can't believe I'm even sharing these pictures of my horrible painting disaster!
Have you ever painted an entire room only to realize you hate it? Pin It

9 comments:

  1. I love the new white wall and the update to the steps! Makes a big difference! I can't wait to tackle my steps.

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  2. Looks wonderful! Especially the stairs!
    I have a story...we picked what I thought was a gray/blue for the exterior of our house. I left the guys as they started painting and went to Target. As I drove up the street 2 hours later, I was HORRIFIED. It was like a neon blue. I told them to stop painting and I'd go pick a new color.

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  3. First of all congratulations on the new addition. This is always exciting.
    I am not sure how the green looks in person but I kind of like it here. However I know how the blog can distort colors. The room looks VERY good now and I love what you did to the stairs. That was a great call. Have a great weekend. Hugs, Ginger

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  4. I have repainted many walls over the years! I think your basement looks bright with the whiter walls and the ceiling definitely seems higher! Good job on the stairs! Linda

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  5. The stairs look awesome. I have never seen stairs made from pine before...wowow.

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  6. hiya great transformation , the colour i so bright and really makes the room feel calm , and the stairs are a real labour of love and soo worth it , tfs
    xmaggiex

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  7. I can't believe you painted that room twice! I painted our wood paneling once, and I had claw hand for days afterward from painting in all those grooves. Never again will I paint that room! Your new color looks great - and I love the stairs!

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  8. oh man, that green WAS pretty bad :) Paint is so hard to pick off a little chip!! I love it now and those stairs are awesome, make me almost wish I had stairs in my house to paint!

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  9. Our dining room was painted ballet slipper pink. I loved it! Our realtor, however, made us paint it because we had listed our house. I regret painting it, and wish I could go back to the pink because we ended-up not selling our house and staying put.

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