Spring Green

Did I ever mention the painting project we started this week? Sometimes I think I've blogged about something only to realize that I only mentally composed it (or wrote it in my journal instead). And that's usually wasted effort anyway, because when I type, the words are formed in my head at almost the same instant I type them out. So why premeditate anything?

Regardless, we did start a painting project. Here was the targeted room. The teeny, tiny dinning room that was never meant to host a family of our size and energy.

I didn't think to take a before picture until after I'd already removed one curtain. I should have turned the light on, too. Sorry for the dark pictures. But you can see that the walls are white. We decided, based on dedicated observation (the outlets and woodwork) that the walls had not been painted since the remodeling painting. As we understand it, that was in 1992. These were walls that really needed a fresh coat of paint!

I wanted a color to match the curtains. More specifically, the green in the curtains. I took my fabric remnant to WalMart to make the match. The thing with paint is that you can't really judge what it will look like from a 1 1/2 inch square paint sample. And if we're going to have to buy a tiny bit to try out first, we're never going to get anything done. So we did the best we could, summoned the paint guy with 4 separate rings of the bell (I was pulling out my cell phone to call the store from the number on one of my receipts when he finally showed), and chose Basil.

On the night of St. Patrick's Day, appropriately enough, we started painting.

Wow! It was GREEN! I was hoping that it would be less green when we woke up the next day. It was less startling in the sunlight, but it was still green. But we are not quitters! We just hoped that the curtains would help the situation out.


And here is the finished room. It's starting to feel OK to me, but it's still really GREEN!

I wouldn't mind lightening it up and adding a little bit of grey to change the energy of it a bit. Maybe I'll save that for the next paint job. When will that be due? 2028?

A friend stopped by yesterday and said it's very "springy." Well, that's lucky. How will I feel about it in the Fall? Maybe I'll barely notice it by then. It's not that it's a bad color. I have seen color choices MUCH more offensive. It's just not my usual style.

We did the work after the kids went to bed to eliminate any wet paint disasters that are sure to come with this many kids this young. The only one we couldn't just put to bed was little Miss Sarah. So Chad did most of the painting work and I did the baby work. Often times, painting involves stripping first. This time it only applied to Sarah. She like to go through a lot of outfits occasionally.

Here she is, awaiting a new outfit. I gave her a toy ring to play with and this is what she did with it. I was quite impressed with her dexterity! She didn't care about the toy; she just wanted me to pick her up (and put clothes back on her body).