My Relationship with Paint

When Scotty and I were first married (and new home owners trying to save a few pennies) I became obsessed with paint. It started when I got the itch to paint my kitchen table. This was in 2004 when no one painted tables. Seriously. I went to various stores asking the "paint experts" about whether it was possible to paint a table without completely sanding it down. No one really knew. They just gave me a best guess which was to try priming it, painting it, then coating it with polyurethane.

I gave it a shot, and my table went from this:

 

To this:

 

It's not very cool in today's world of DIY and Pinterest, but at the time, it was pretty bold. People always commented on my table when they came over, and I even had people who had heard about my table ask if they could come see it. 

Sadly, the paint didn't hold up well, so after a few years I ended up painting the entire thing black. Then one day I saw a little bump in the paint, and I started picking at it. Pretty soon, I'd done this:

Around the same time I painted my table, I painted this table for my niece:

 

I began a hobby of painting things. I loved finding things at the thrift store to re-do.

  

A breadbox I eventually got rid of because it smelled weird.

 

These shelves are still one of my favorite thrift store finds.

 

This is an awful photo, but this table-sort-of-thing was very well-loved in our home for many years, despite the chunk of it that was missing. I re-painted in a few times. The strange curtain-y thing wasn't there long.

 

 I painted this rocking chair for my nephew for Christmas.

I did this dresser for my niece. 

Along with painting furniture, I also painted walls. Scotty would come home to find that I had changed the color of a room. I often used discounted (mistinted) paint. That resulted in a lot of improvising, but when you live in an out-dated house, and you can paint your entire kitchen for $5 on a whim (true story!) why not take a few risks?

(I've had a lot of tacky paint colors in my house).

Some time after I became a mother of two, I stopped painting for fun. I realized it was too difficult with little kids around, and honestly, I stopped enjoying it.

Now that we're doing some updates to our house, there have been new opportunities to paint. My old paint obsession resurfaced for a while, and I started painting several things around my house (the pictures will come someday... maybe). One great thing about taking a break from painting is that it allowed some time for updates in products. The paint available now is far superior to what I used eight years ago.

Revisiting an old hobby has made me realize some truths about my relationship with paint.

Truth #1: I'm not patient with painting.

I want to get it over with as quickly as possible. Part of this is out of fear that I'll never finish. I need to get it done now or it'll end up sitting for months.

Truth #2: I am a lazy painter,

If I can get away with a short-cut, I will take the short-cut. Anything I can skip - cleaning, taping, second-coat, etc - I will. Even if I'm not sure I can get away with it, I will still try.

Truth #3: I am a messy painter.

I drip on my shoes. I spill on the carpet. I lean my back against a freshly painted wall.

So while I have been painting random things around my house over the past two months, I've ruined a few clothing items, namely my only two pairs of decent jeans.

Now, you may be wondering, if I know that I am a messy painter, why did I wear decent jeans to paint in in the first place?

Because I'm impatient and lazy, of course! (See Truths #1&2). But not only that, I can only paint while things are calm at home, and since I never know when things will be calm, I never know when I'll be painting. It's usually a thirty-minute window when Zoe is in a Dora coma and Eva is taking her cat nap. I don't take the time to change clothes because that creeps in on my painting time. I always truly believe that I will stay clean this time, but also, I've painted enough jeans to know how to get latex paint out of them in a bind, so I always have that to fall back on just in case (but then I never get the paint out because, again, lazy).

Yesterday I got this sudden idea to re-do Nicky's dresser. This idea struck me about 30 minutes before Zoe had to be to preschool. I thought, Hey, I'll just get the first coat started now, then take Zoe to preschool, and see if I can finish it while she's gone. So I got the entire first coat finished then dropped Zoe off at preschool. Then I came home and started on the second coat before it was time to go pick up kids (it's another half-hour window. Tragic, really). When it was time to leave, I went to put the lid on the paint, and something seemed a bit off, but I brushed it aside and left for Nicky's school. Then I went straight from Nicky's school to Zoe's school. When I got out of the van to go get Zoe, I put my phone in my back pocket, and that's when I realized why the paint lid looked a little strange...

I'd sat on it. 

I wasn't surprised. This is typical of me. Of course I sat on the paint lid. It's what I do. 

But... I'd just bought those pants THE DAY BEFORE.

I'd like to think that I've learned my lesson. Next time I paint, I'll probably change my clothes. But the time after that, I'll probably think, Oh, it's just a quick coat of paint. I won't hurt anything!

Fortunately (and much to my surprise), I was able to get the paint out, even after it had been there for two hours! I've gotten small amounts of paint out of jeans several times, but never anything quite like this. I feel like the champion of the world! 

Pine Sol and a toothbrush. Impatient, lazy, messy painters be aware.