Adventures in Painting

The previous owners of our house had... interesting... taste in wall decor. They had painted some faux bricks on the walls of the living room and dining room, which could have been cool but just ended up looking tacky instead. They were going for a sort of French Bistro look, I think -- a look that is incongruous with a basement ranch house from the 1960's.

We've been in the house for nearly three years now, and it wasn't until today that we finally got rid of the final remnants of this disaster-in-paint that was our walls. We had redecorated the dining room, where the bulk of the ugliness was, just before Vinny was born, but we hadn't done anything with the living room until this summer.

This was in part because we do not use the living room. The living room furniture from our (much smaller) house in Illinois is downstairs in the family room, and we hadn't bothered to buy any furniture for the upstairs. So it is basically an empty room, which confused our nosy neighbors when they tried to figure out if we'd moved in yet. Right now, it has become a de facto toy room, where Vinny's indoor swing/slide and kitchen set live. We have a piano in that room too, one we bought from our next-door neighbor when he was moving away. But that's really all the furnishings we have for that room right now.

The non-faux-brick sections of the walls were a tannish mustard color -- sort of on the Grey Poupon side of the mustard spectrum, vs. the radioactive yellow color of fast-food mustard. We have now painted the room a light blue -- a color that perfectly matched the sky this afternoon as we were painting.

It looks beautiful. We are really pleased with the color and with our excellent painting job. It was a joint effort. In the morning, I watched Vinny while Jeff painted, and then when Vinny was napping, I took over painting from Jeff. He did the majority of the painting, because he's just a lot faster than I am at it, but I did do the majority of the top coat of the paint.

We did only the living room, but at some point we'll have to paint the hallway too because the interior living room wall extends into the main hallway. But for now we just blocked it off at one point and called it the edge of the living room.

The plan is to make the living room into a really comfortable, relaxing space. Vinny's toys will probably have to go elsewhere. We are not in a huge hurry to furnish it, so we'll take our time and get what we really want. Tentatively, we're thinking of a relaxing fountain, some better blinds, and some really comfortable furniture.