On a whim, I decided I was going to paint my room this afternoon. I've never painted anything more complicated than a small model before, so you can imagine how things went.
I've learned a few lessons that may be useful to anyone else attempting to do this for the first time.
1) Spend more than 3 minutes choosing a paint color.
2) That blue tape they sell? Yeah, get that. They aren't kidding.
3) It doesn't matter how high your IQ, how rich you are or how many women want you, you are NOT as good as the pros at this.
4) "I don't need to cover my carpet, I'm pretty careful!" is the PATH TO DOOM. DOOOOOOOM!
5) Your glass desk will never, ever forgive you for not buying the cheap painter's plastic to cover your furniture.
7) The paint looks different wet than it does dry; don't freak out because what you're painting and what you painted 30 minutes ago look WAAAAY different. No, you don't need to go over it again. And again. And again. And again...
8) You are not smarter than the man at the paint store.
9) No, really, you are not smarter than the man at the paint store.
10) Yes, you will have to move your furniture. No, it's not a good idea to try and paint around it.
11) Yes, paint comes out of leather, if you do it quickly.
12) No, primer doesn't.
13) Close your closet doors before you start.
14) No matter how tempting it is, don't use the lid of the paint jar as an easel.
15) Google is really useful, and everyone on the internet is apparently better at painting than you are. Listen to them. Oh, God, listen to them.
Hopefully someone will take something away from this. I'm going back to my half-painted room and finishing the job now.
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
If you count "laughing my ass off at you" as "take something away from this," your wish is granted!
Posted by Demonstrocity (Member # 9579) on :
16) "Oh no, I messed up, I better clean this with water and paper towels!" is an INFINITELY better response than "I messed this up, oh well, I'll get it later with paper towels and acetone!"
17) Your swiveling computer chair is a BAD FOOTSTOOL.
Posted by kwsni (Member # 1831) on :
I'm going to have to go with ElJay on this one. Painting is not THAT hard.
Ni!
Posted by Shawshank (Member # 8453) on :
Wow. Thank you. It made me laugh on the inside.
Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
I tried for hours, in vain, to convince my dad that it was not a good idea to skip taping. He didn't listen. He freaking paints like a Parkinson's patient on meth. Never again.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
In his defense, painting is harder than laundry. And I've seen some guys his age mess up laundry in ways that could easily have sparked an international incident if word had gotten out.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
Demonstrocity, I see a high-volume paint sprayer in your future.
Think of the possibilities!
Posted by Demonstrocity (Member # 9579) on :
Aftermath: it looks ok, except that I ran out with about 1/10 of the ceiling unpainted, so it looks...odd.
My desk is ok, post-acetone. My carpet is ok, except the spots where paint hit it are now cotton candy blue. My pride, on the other hand: pretty bruised. Posted by CaySedai (Member # 6459) on :
quote:Originally posted by El JT de Spang: I tried for hours, in vain, to convince my dad that it was not a good idea to skip taping. He didn't listen. He freaking paints like a Parkinson's patient on meth. Never again.
I am so not a do-it-yourselfer when it comes to stuff like this. I even want to hire a plumber to put in a new kitchen faucet (after my husband tried and bent the copper pipe so that we had to return the cheap faucet we bought).
Posted by Dr Strangelove (Member # 8331) on :
You should write a book.
Posted by Glenn Arnold (Member # 3192) on :
Next stop, sheet rock!
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
quote:Originally posted by El JT de Spang: I tried for hours, in vain, to convince my dad that it was not a good idea to skip taping. He didn't listen. He freaking paints like a Parkinson's patient on meth. Never again.
*snort* Lovely, lovely visual!
Posted by imogen (Member # 5485) on :
We painted on the weekend. I still have ceiling paint in my hair. Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
Painting, I can handle. I've never had any real problem with it. Wallpapering, on the other hand - there's a reason why all the walls in my house are painted.
I've painted many a room by myself. As in, woke up, decided to paint the room, went to the store bought paint and roller covers, came home, moved all the furniture, put down dropcloths (I never use tape, never needed it), cut in around the ceilings and floors, rolled the walls, let it dry, put all the furniture back and then go eat dinner.
Advice on picking color - take fabric from the room to the store (curtains, pillow) and put the paint swatches against the fabric to see how it works. I always pull my paint color from fabrics. Never had to re-paint a room or been disappointed in the way it turned out.
Posted by ssasse (Member # 9516) on :
I'm right there with Belle on wallpapering. It's my second -- no, make that third -- worst nightmare.
I mean, it should be straightforward, right? You are just sticking stuff up on a wall. And there are instructions everywhere.
But lies, lies, lies. Lies are the work of the devil, and so is wallpaper.
Posted by Demonstrocity (Member # 9579) on :
quote:Originally posted by Belle: Painting, I can handle. I've never had any real problem with it. Wallpapering, on the other hand - there's a reason why all the walls in my house are painted.
I've painted many a room by myself. As in, woke up, decided to paint the room, went to the store bought paint and roller covers, came home, moved all the furniture, put down dropcloths (I never use tape, never needed it), cut in around the ceilings and floors, rolled the walls, let it dry, put all the furniture back and then go eat dinner.
Advice on picking color - take fabric from the room to the store (curtains, pillow) and put the paint swatches against the fabric to see how it works. I always pull my paint color from fabrics. Never had to re-paint a room or been disappointed in the way it turned out.
That's excellent advice, and would be more pertinent to my situation if any of the fabric in my room matched the walls anyway. Then again, the only fabric in my room is my bed sheets.
From what I've read about wallpapering, it sounds like something I'm never, ever, ever going to attempt myself. Posted by Javert (Member # 3076) on :
quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: In his defense, painting is harder than laundry. And I've seen some guys his age mess up laundry in ways that could easily have sparked an international incident if word had gotten out.
How do you mess up laundry? If you're horribly worried, just put the temperature on cold! Posted by Angiomorphism (Member # 8184) on :
I painted my room at school this year when I first moved in. It was the entire attic, and so the walls were not straight at all, as there were a bunch of random slants according to the roof structure. I was painting it a much ligther colour, so 2 coats of primer were necessary, and 2 coats of my colour. It was SUPER hot the day I decided to paint, and my house (being a shitty old student house) didn't have AC (plus it's always better to have the windows open anyway). It started off fun, then got really tedious and tiring (my arms and back were killing me from the reaching and slanting). But, soon after, some of my other housemates (a few of the 7 guys I lived with this year) came in and the whole ordeal quickly turned into a "let's stip down to out boxers and listen to motown and dance while also painting" session. Suffice it to say, the first coat wasn't that evenly distributed, but in the end, it turned out fine, and I discovered I hadn't ever used a few muscles in my back until that day.
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