A lick of paint and it’s as good as new
A lick of paint and it’s as good as new

A lick of paint and it’s as good as new

Old fashioned bathroom/laundry with concrete laundry tubs and a corner fireplace.I may have mentioned that I painted the bathroom last time we were at the farm. Next time I’m going to paint the kitchen.

For some bizarre reason I’ve had a thing about painting lately. Actually the reason isn’t bizarre –it’s because every wall in our house is (or was) blue. The same blue. The same pale blue.

Doc likes blue. It’s his favourite colour. You could probably tell that if you walked into our lounge room with its blue walls … and blue lounge … and blue cushions … and blue curtains … and blue dining chairs. Even the ironing board cover is blue – and the ironing board was always left up in the lounge room. With typically male logic Doc insisted it had to be left up because it was used so often to iron his work shirts.

When I moved in 2 years ago I put it away – and it hasn’t come out since! I hate ironing.

I casually mentioned to Doc that it might be nice to mix up the colours in the house a bit more. All right, I nagged him incessantly until he gave in. I think his words were “as long as I don’t have to do anything”. It almost sounded like a dare!

I think you can see a pattern emerging here. But in my defence, I’m not trying to change Doc – just the house.

Corner shot of my office with one mulberry wall and one pale greyThe first room to be painted was my office. Doc now calls it the galah room, because of its mulberry feature wall with the other three a pale grey. At least that’s what he tells me.

When Joel moved out we cleaned up his bedroom. That’s now referred to as “the green room”. If you’ve ever lived with a teenage boy you will understand why that had to be repainted. I think we were lucky not to have to cleanse it with fire!

Long kitchen with oe feature wall bright red in the foreground and the back wall yellowThen before Christmas I repainted the kitchen, well two walls at least – one wall bright red and the other yellow. Doc walked in after work and started babbling about golden arches. Then he got onto all my friends on facebook begging for somebody to give me a job.

But now I’ve got two more rooms to paint – we’ve just got rid of the bed in the spare room leaving that bare and making it easy to get to the walls, and we’re about to start renovating our bedroom so that will need painting. I’m too busy to get a job!

So based on my experience, what are the most important things about painting?

  1. Unless your ceiling is really clean already, after you paint the walls you will decide to paint the ceiling. Bite the bullet and make that decision before you start the walls. There is a reason that you start from the top and work downwards
  2. It doesn’t matter how little the space you’re painting – use a drop sheet. Prevention really is better than cure
  3. If you’re standing on a ladder and start to wobble, don’t grab the top of the ladder to steady yourself. Even a small tin of paint makes a big mess on the floor
  4. If there’s a wasp flying around the room, take it as a hint that the wasp nest in the corner is NOT old and dead. Don’t just try to flick it off. Especially not if you’re allergic.

Most important – pick the colours yourself, you’re the one that has to like them and live with it,  nobody else. I once knew a couple who hired a “colourist” to come and tell them what colours to decorate their house ( it was the 80s and he was a banker!). Their suggestion? Paint every wall and ceiling cream. They’re now divorced, though I’m not sure you can blame that solely on the house.