Painting Oatmeal
filed in Design: Color, Nonsensical Ramblings on Aug.02, 2006
We’ve lived in our new house since mid-December (almost 8 months now) and have finally begun the task of repainting the inside rooms. We chose a nice neutral color for the living room, dining room, foyer and hallways. It’s a Ralph Lauren color named Oatmeal and we like it a lot.
So now comes the task of moving furniture and rugs out of the way, covering said items with dropcloths, masking off outlets and other non-paint type things, spackling, sanding and finally painting.
Two nights ago I removed any fixtures in my way and moved all the furniture.
Last night I pre-sanded and spackled.
Tonight I will sand down that spackle, respackle if needed, and hopefully begin painting. My sister-in-law Anne is coming over tonight to help me.
I have three evenings to complete the painting because lots and lots of house guests are coming over on Sunday to celebrate Erin’s 2nd birthday. It’s gonna be tight. Real tight.
Why did we wait all this time to paint and then decide to do it all in four workday evenings? I’m not going to stress out about it. Either it gets done or it doesn’t. Our guests are all either close friends or family – all of which understand that we lead hectic lives and haven’t lived in our house even a year yet. Visiting the house mid-project is perfectly acceptable and nobody is going to disown us if they see spackle on the wall, or the molding is only painted on two sides of a window.
This is real life. Nobody should expect Better Homes & Gardens when visiting my house.
August 2nd, 2006 on 3:39 pm
Great color. I just painted my bathroom that color. Only the Sherwinn Williams people call it “Country Beige”. Actually, let me clarify… I chose the color and the contractor actually painted it. I confess, I am a spoiled, spoiled woman. 😛
August 2nd, 2006 on 6:28 pm
We waited b/c we seem to work best when there’s a hard deadline…
August 3rd, 2006 on 5:13 am
But Kenny…you’re an artist…painting a wall, a reasonably square wall mind you, should be a walk in the park. This is what you do! Get it done! If I was an artist and my father walked into an unpainted house, he would ask me what exactly I had done for 4 years of college. Something to think about…
August 3rd, 2006 on 5:32 am
Jason – I must’ve slept through my House Painting 101 class at Pratt.
The real sin is graduating with a design degree and then hiring a contractor to paint for you…. right Digi? 😉
August 3rd, 2006 on 6:44 am
It happens to the best of us I suppose. Good luck with the project and Happy Birthday to Erin!
August 3rd, 2006 on 7:02 am
NY lurker coming out to say: Make sure you stainkill/enamelac the compounded areas. The compound absorbs some of the paint and you end up with an uneven finish, particularly with Eggshell/Satin/Semi-gloss finishes.
August 3rd, 2006 on 7:10 am
Sarah – Thanks for the tip! I’m pretty safe though. There was VERY little spackling required and I’m using a Flat finish for the walls as it hides mismatches in the finish better than eggshell.
August 3rd, 2006 on 8:04 am
OUCH! That hurt me! :O
August 3rd, 2006 on 8:19 am
You know I’m just jealous.
August 3rd, 2006 on 2:33 pm
Flat huh? I’ll stop there. I used to do painting for a living so I have some pretty strong biases. Particularly against flat finish. 🙂
August 4th, 2006 on 7:49 am
Sarah, as I said, nobody should expect Better Homes & Gardens when visiting my house. However, with your extensive trade knowledge, feel free to stop by and lend a hand. I can use all the help I can get!
August 5th, 2006 on 4:09 am
With a little help from my sister, Kenny finished the painting In record time! Thanks for staying up until 2 am two work nights in a row babe. On to the yard work =)
August 9th, 2006 on 6:17 am
I love the Oatmeal colour! We too have been painting over here. And I think I agree with Kate, even we seem to work better with a deadline 🙂
It’s hard to believe 2 years have gone by. Little Erin is growing up quickly. I think I first came across your blog just before she was born!