To paint or not to paint. Would I ask the question?
Paint covers a multitude of sins and there had been a lot of indiscretion in this house.
Well, any house inhabited for over half a century has seen its share of drinking, card-playing and fornicating.
No, I wasn’t worried about that kind of dirt. I wanted to wash over scuff marks left from years of the dresser bumping against the wall as mom raced to find her clothes. Marks imprinted after reckless jabs with the vacuum cleaner’s snout in hurried attempts to clean house before husband’s shift ended at the mill.
All I wanted was a funky, fun house and not this 50-year-old rental with squirrels nesting in the attic and a bucket under the kitchen sink to catch dirty dish water that dripped from a hole in the pipe.
At the local mega home improvement store, I looked through the paint chips. Yellow, blue, green. Then I spied a table with paint marked down half price.
Discarded colors that hadn’t matched someone’s dream breakfast nook or Aunt Ida’s hand-hooked rug that was to cover the hardwoods.
Trying to save money, another’s castoffs would be good enough for me.
I spied a couple of cans of salmon-like satin finish and thought: adobe chic.
Just what a house in the rural south needed.
After purchasing the paint, I came home, spread covers over the furniture and rolled a bit of color on the wall.
Hm.
Surely it will look better once more paint is on there.
I rolled and rolled.
Hm.
Surely it will lighten up once it dries.
The more sin I covered, the worse it looked. Brushing that color on the walls was the most heinous crime that room ever experienced.
I only had so much energy, so much time and so much money and this wasn’t turning out at all.
So I kept painting that damned adobe color on the walls, living with that mistake for over a year.
Slept there and worked there and watched Everybody Loves Raymond lying on the bed and thought see, no one has a great-looking house.
Pulling together a hip interior never was your thing Missy. What were you thinking? Adobe chic. The good Lord just sentenced some people to live in houses decorated as if a slide from a brain cell of Jackson Pollock under a microscope was their inspiration.
Over a decade after that paint debacle, pulling together a room is still not my thing.
But I refuse to live with something that is as steel wool rubbing on the back of my neck.
After almost a half century of life I’m finally not afraid to ask the question, what is it that you truly want, Jamie?
Even if the answer means spending another 30 dollars on paint.
Oh boy. That sounds awful. Good paint is always worth the extra $30.
I would have done the same thing, buying another’s rejects to save money. What does this say about us?? 🙂 Glad you decided to spend the $$ to re-do it. Enjoyable read. Love the Raymond reference.
That would be me. To a “T”. I am a horribel decorator. I try so hard but I can never pull together a room like those on Home Makever like shows. I’m quite useless in this regard! I can totally relate to this lol.
The right paint can make such a huge difference! I hope you find it. I don’t have the decorator gene either…I so wish that stuff came naturally.
Adobe Chic sounds lovely. It’s a tough call – to spend the extra $ or not. I’m not sure what I would do. My fave part of this was the quote; See, no one has a great looking house.
Ours totally needs to be painted, but I bought the kids that slide this summer didn’t I so it’s oging to be needing to be painted a while longer now…!
My husband is the decorator in the family. He has a great eye. I just have to reel him in a every now and then to make sure I don’t end up living in a man cave. 🙂
I used a salmon in my kitchen in our last house, accented with a sunny yellow and then painted the floor blue. It was nothing like the fun tropical paradise I had envisioned and everything like a horrible 1970s sitcom set. I lived with it until we put the house up for sale, and painted it white.
UGHHHHHHHH Painting!! No thank you.
This post spoke to me as a metaphor for life. We settle for something until finally we don’t, and ask ourselves what we want and go get it.
But then I try to find hidden meaning in everything. On a literal level I did this same thing, but I so disliked the result I could not live with it. The next day, lacking energy to repeat the process, I paid a college kid to help me redo it. And it worked. I enjoyed your story and the nostalgic, thoughtful quality of it.
That’s it Stephanie. I feel so much of my life I’ve settled. Afraid to ask myself — what do I want? I’m not afraid to do that anymore.
I can’t believe you even reached for a salmon-colored paint. Barf.
THAT SAID: I think you have an amazing voice. I feel like I’m reading an excerpt from some terrific novel based on a tough mama from the south. Are you writing a book?
Please do.
Thank you Tracy. I do have a story in my head that I am trying to eek out a first draft. Just got to “have faith” right?
That salmon color is evil and should be removed from the market. The FDA pulls bad drugs, who is there to pull bad paint colors??
I thought it would be fun to paint that color on the ceiling of our master bath. Fun if you like to look like you have a perpetual sunburn and live with the feeling that spoiled Pepto Bismol is going to rain down on you at any moment.
Don’t settle for bad paint, don’t settle for anything. 🙂 Ellen
Nice post! Ask yourself what you want and then go get it! “You go, girl!” as they say.
On an unrelated note I’ve never quite grasped why everyone is so cool with “salmon” as a name for a color. “Salmon” means “the color of the dead salmon flesh when you slice the fish open.” We would never call a color “Dead cow” or “Day old carrion.” And then expect people to be like “YES! That’s what I want my living room to scream!” Why is “salmon” acceptable?
You go, girl! Get the paint you want!
I refuse to buy cheap paint and it makes my sister in law nuts. But who didn’t have to use four gallons of cheap paint to cover one wall in her bedroom? Oh, yeah. Me.
I love the Oops! paint section at Home Depot. It’s so enticing, the possibility of finding “that perfect color” for less than a quarter of what you would normally spend on the can of paint. I actually have a can of this beautiful shade of very dark grey, that I have no idea what to do with, but HAD to have because it was only $7. But when it comes right down to it, having a home that makes you happy is the absolute most important thing, and color is a huge part of that. The money spent on having what you want will be forgotten, but the joy you get from surrounding yourself with “that perfect color” is really priceless.
What a great first line! You really drew me in and made me want to read more.
I think making decisions gets easier as you age and get to know yourself better. We redid our kitchen a few years back, and I had no trouble choosing a bold, brick red. But 10 years ago, when we bought our house and decided to repaint the entire interior, choosing the colors was like pulling teeth.
You had me at every house has seen it’s share of “drinking, card-playing and fornicating.” love that!
You tried. And painting is the most forgiving manor of decorating. LOVED this story!
I really enjoyed reading this, although I am sorry about the paint choice. Haha.
Never settle, especially not for bad paint!
Great story that was very well told. Good job!
We should get together, between the two of us we would probably end up painting the room 5 times from changing our minds 🙂
I can just imagine this color – something that looked good on the paint chip, but awful on the walls. For me, painting over it would be about the time, not the money. I’d do the same thing, though. It’s so hard to admit that something drives us crazy. Trying to get out of heading a committee that drives me crazy – as it turns out, I hate trying to convince people to do things. But it’s so hard to just admit I hate it, and deal with the fallout.
Such a great job with all the little details, you captured me with the fact that your vacuum has a snout. It’s the little things! Bravo.
Ahh painting. Would you believe that I have just finished painting the interior of 3 houses in 4 weeks? Alas, no colors to choose – all rentals, so a nice Heavy Cream will suffice. Yes, really 3 houses in 4 weeks! Find the color and paint it! If you don’t like it, find another! It really is that simple
God bless you Karen. At least it is great exercise.