And the painting continues.

We are working on an accent wall and have not really done one before.  The simple thing to do would be to paint it a color, like light blue and be done.  Not.

We want something very special.  Something nobody else has.  We went to Masters carpets and saw some walls that Angel had painted.  They were perfect!  Several different walls painted in different colors and all were beautiful.  Of course Angel is a schooled interior decorator with painting skills next to a true artist.  She explained just how simple and easy it is and we were convinced.

We told her we would like to show off the blue that is in our furniture by have our accent wall some sort of blue shade.  She was quick to give us a lesson on doing just that.  The samples she showed us didn’t even look like blue to me.  She went on to say that in order to do the type of wall she had showed us in the show room, we would be working with a flat paint as the base and then a stain that would be 3 shades darker.  The stain is something she has come up with and not many others have caught on to the technique.  Next door at the paint store is where they mix the paints and stains for her.

So, I painted the base paint and it dried about the color of a robin egg.  Really nice.  On  the flat side, but the next step will make it shine like a glistening pond at twilight.

We went to the paint store and told them what Angel was setting us up with and they mixed the stain up for us.  The lady said that she and Angel had developed this idea through trial and error and even at that she had to mix ours twice in order to get it right.  She matched Angels sample perfectly.  Now to go home and give it heck!

With a quick call to Angel before I began, she gave me some pointers over the phone…I follow directions perfectly….aaaaahhhhhh…right.  And so with the smallish wall on the North side of the fireplace I began to slop on the stain.  It was a different sort of painting.  With mostly varnish in the can and some color showing through now and again I began to make arches and small circles.  Criss crossing through them and obliterating them over and over, spreading the glossy goo as evenly as I could up and down, side to side until I have the whole wall covered.  It looked sort of cool.

As it dried is darkened and I wasn’t the happiest of guys in the world.  I cussed under my breath.  Why could it not stay the same shade as it was when I put it on?  Oh well.  It’s on and on to stay.  Enough for this day, and out popped a cold beverage.

Sherry and I marveled at how it looked and even though a shade dark for my preference it wasn’t too bad.  We will do better on the rest of the walls.

This morning after breakfast and a quick trip to town, we were back at the wall.  I talked Sherry into giving it a go.  She did and soon her frustration level was over the top and she threw down the paint brush and said, “It’s all yours”!

There was nothing I could do to make hers look like mine from yesterday.  So out came the can of robin egg blue and over her stain I painted.  By then it was lunch time.  If I get started painting that stain I can’t stop…you have to just keep painting and get the job done…Angel made it a point to tell us that.  Paint fast too, she said, as you don’t want the stain to dry out before you cross over it with more stain.  Sure, how fast can you paint?

After lunch I convinced Sherry to give it another try.  How hard can it be?  I showed her how I had done the one wall yesterday and cautioned her about making it too dark.  Spread it around a lot, I told her.  Make arches and circles and then cross through them and blend them in and around.  Not too dark, just make the wall shine and keep moving.  She did all of that.  From the floor up to as high as she could reach.  I could do the wall up to the ceiling.

Soon she was done and handed the rest of the job over to me.  I finished it and we watched as the stain slowly dried that ever so annoying darker shade.  The problem soon became apparent, her painting technique and mine are very much different.  Angel forgot to mention that only one person should stain a wall.

And so, with my learning from yesterday, I did not put the stain on as thickly as did Sherry and so hers was much darker and more pronounce than mine.  So noticeably so that I pulled out the robin egg blue again and painted over her stain job.

Don’t get me wrong, I was ready to paint the base board white and call it done.  This section of wall will be covered by furniture down below and pictures above.  Nobody would notice anything about her staining job being darker than mine, unless they took the pictures down or moved the furniture away from the wall.  And who is going to do that?  No one.  She forced me to paint over her work.

And so, here I sit waiting for the paint to dry so that I can go up and attempt to match into where I stained earlier in the day.  I’m not sure I can do that and may end up painting the whole wall over with the robin egg paint.

Eventually, this job will get done and I have taken “Before” pictures of this wall.  I hope to be able to take “After” pictures and show you them on here, today.  Wish me luck, I’m headed out of this cold prison and up to where I can see the snow flying outside…..HEY GUARD!  SEND DOWN SOME HEAT!

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It’s now 6:23 p.m. and I think I’m done.

The wall as we began prepping:

After the first coat of robin egg blue:

And finally after re-painting parts of the robin egg blue twice…the finished product:

It looks pretty cool doesn’t it?

Bears Butt

All painters drink beer!

Feb. 8, 2013