Last weekend, we went to Home Depot to purchase all of the materials needed to paint the nursery.In theory, it's not that hard. Just pick out a few cans of paint, right? And yet, somehow, we were there for nearly three hours. THREE LONG, PAINFUL HOURS.
A big part of the problem is that we don't really know what we're doing. And we don't pick simple projects. Actually, those two issues together pretty much sum up the problem in its entirety.
For example, we can't just paint the nursery one color. Oh no! I saw a cute picture in a magazine where the bottom two-thirds of the wall was one color, separated from a different color on the top one-third by a trim board. It was adorable! But much more complicated that just slapping some paint on the wall.
Even before getting to Home Depot, it required significantly more detailed measuring of the room, since we were buying several paint colors. It will also require leveling abilities when we hang the trim boards.
And how do we hang the trim boards, exactly? With our old plaster walls, Keith isn't a big fan of putting in a lot of nail holes. But can we get away with gluing the boards? This gets to the second part of the problem: we're both pretty new at all of this house maintenance/decorating stuff, and we don't know the best way to do things. We don't know any way to do things, really. We're just kinda making it up as we go along, and that takes a lot of brain power. Especially considering that it usually means the plan changes at least once during implementation, because there's a kink we'd failed to factor in during the "planning/making it up" stage.
By the end of our Home Depot trip, I was physically and mentally exhausted. I hung around the cash registers, waiting for Keith to pick up one more thing that we'd missed in our first five rounds of the store. When he finally returned to the front, he told me I looked defeated. I thought it was a pretty accurate description.
If the painting this weekend goes well, maybe there will be pictures to post next week. If you don't ever see pictures of the nursery .... well, don't ask. Just assume we've decided to take a break from DIY house projects.
3 comments:
I'll let you in on a secret - nobody knows how to do things. Everybody starts from the same place you are starting.
I learned that I am actually very good at hanging wallpaper (lining paper - our walls are terrible) - and I found out by trying to do it.
1) Have you considered double-sided tape? The heavy-duty kind? Or will that mess up the plaster if you decide to remove the trim boards?
2) You just brought back memories of my sister single-handedly trying to paint the nursery and apply sponged-on puppy paws while 8 months preggo with a toddler in tow. lol
Can't wait to see all the finished projects!!!
After the DIY extravaganza this weekend, I've been wondering/hoping it gets easier with every project. We're a few further steps away from novice, and towards experienced handypeople, right?
I wanted to hang some wallpaper in the nursery, but Keith would rather just deal with paint. In retrospect, probably not a bad idea.
Cat: We're thinking liquid nails for the trim board, but we'll see ... I may be eight months pregnant, but at least Keith was doing the heavy lifting and painting!
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