Fresh Coat of Paint (On The Walls)

Let me be honest, I’m more of a “wannabe” DIY mom.

I have a TON of creative ideas that come to me at 1 AM when my restless mind refuses to sleep. However, when it comes to time, money, or energy to execute any of the “Joanna Gaines/ Fixer-Upper” inspired renovations… I come up short. When I got furloughed from my job in March, and the Stay-At-Home order became in effect, my time quickly freed up. I immediately began looking for small projects to tackle around the house. That’s when I realized painting some of the walls inside my house could distract me from the uncertainties going on outside my house. Within the first few weeks of the pandemic, I painted my kitchen walls with a light grey and touched up the trim with a matte white. It took me less than a day to do and the subtle changes had a not so subtle result. Suddenly, the kitchen looked brighter and newer. I knew I was on to something.

 

The following week, I moved on to one of our bathrooms.

We originally renovated the bathroom a couple of years ago. I had sent my husband to get “grey” for the walls. Since we had paid someone else to paint it, I didn’t notice the color until it was completely done. (… men, right?) It had an ugly, unsettling, blueish tint to it. So, with the leftover grey from the kitchen, I touched up the bathroom. I also used the same matte white for the baseboards and trim.

 

Side note: People were very against the matte. Even the woman at Home Depot insisted it would be hard to keep clean because of the texture. FYI, it’s no different than glossy white. They both get dirty, you have to stay on top of cleaning them, but both can be wiped down with a little warm soapy water. (I swear by Clorox wipes for EVERYTHING! Since those are hard to come by these days, I have a friend who uses Mr. Clean erasers and insists they work like a charm!) I prefer the matte white. It makes the edges seem sharper and flatter rather than so shiny with the glossy paint. It’s all personal preference.

I was on a roll…

We had shiplap installed in our half bath as an accent wall. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it. It was plain and stayed that way for a few months. I had an adorable navy blue sink that inspired me to finally commit to a decision. I took blue stain, watered-down white paint, and just started painting and wiping…painting and wiping…painting and wiping until I got a color and pattern that felt right.


I moved onto my bedroom next. I had grey shiplap installed on the wall behind my bed. The walls that connected to the shiplap were a basic, generic, wall color that no longer matched. I went back and forth with the idea to use basic white or the light grey that I recently fell in love with. I decided on the white. This project took around 4 days. Mainly because I had to use 2-3 coats for the white. I also broke up sections over a few days since I was painting the entire room. The bright white definitely complimented the shiplap.

Finally and most recently, I took on my girls’ bedroom. I went to Home Depot to pick out the colors. It was the first time I had gone into any store in over 3 months, but I couldn’t leave it up to the hubby again. As soon as we got home, I got to work. We had a chair rail installed, which I painted (you guessed it) matte white. The bottom half of the wall wasn’t as white as I originally pictured but after two coats it sufficed. The top color was really just a quick pick but surprisingly pulled everything together.

While I would love to pull up all of our old flooring or do other major renovations, simply painting was a great way to keep me busy. In under 4 months, I improved 5 rooms in my house with just a little DIY & TLC.

I even had some help…

Nicole Deano
Nicole is married, mommy of 3 (Emily, Talia, Gavin.) She’s a lifetime resident of Chalmette, with a brief 3 years in New Iberia following Hurricane Katrina. She is a realtor with 1 Percent Lists. She is also a 10-year breast cancer survivor. She is Disney obsessed and was a Disney Bride. She is trying to stay sane with juggling her busy life.

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