What's The Best Part Of Painting ?

As I reflect on my 13+ years as a homeowner (3 different houses during that time), I have come to the realization that I have done a LOT of interior painting.  I am certainly not the only person who can make this claim, but when I think about the sheer volume of space I have painted it literally makes my arms, shoulders, and back begin to ache.

In our first house, all of the walls were once painted an off-white color, to help mask the smoke smell from the previous tenants.  Our master bedroom was painted a nice red color (two of the walls anyway) and the boys' bedroom was painted with various "Little People" animals of all colors.  I was quite proud of that room, even though some of the animals never got completely finished.  Then the red room was re-painted white so we could sell the house.

This is one small section of the
"Princess Room" for the girls

In our second home, I painted a princess room for the girls (large and small bricks/blocks that made the walls look like a castle) complete with multi colored flags and scenes off in the distance.  The boys' room was painted in Bronco Orange and Blue, with hand stamps (theirs of course) of the opposite color in two-thirds of the room.  The master bedroom and bathroom area was the most time consuming, as it included multiple walls painted to look like standard red bricks.  This effect required multiple coats of paint before and after various taping steps.  The other walls were painted green.  The main level of the home, including its HUGE walls connected to the vaulted ceiling, was painted in a dark green and light tan pattern (alternating walls).  All three bedrooms were painted an eggshell color when we decided to sell the home.  I also painted the interior of the garage, including the ceiling, a flat white color (two coats since it was the bare sheet rock I was painting).

In our current home, the office is painted in a blue and tan beach-like theme.  Spencer's bedroom is painted in a mosaic-like pattern, with three alternating colors: green, blue, and teal.  My sister-in-law painted the "toy room" a nice pink and dark brown pattern, but I did help with taping and edges so I'm counting it.  The garage has been 95% painted (a few new sections of sheet rock and part of the ceiling are untouched ... yet) again in an plain white shade.  And then I recently completed the master bedroom painting (pictures of which you will see in tomorrow's blog post).  And there is more to come as soon as we decide what to do with our main level (the open floor plan makes it hard to know where to start or stop with different colors).

This is a tape-ball from the most recent
"master bedroom" project I finished.

Through all of this, one thing remains constant.  The BEST part of painting is a joy I selfishly reserve for myself.  After all, I am the one who cleaned the walls, applied the tape, painted base layers of primer, etc. and then did all the touch up around the corners, edges, and hard to reach places.

So what's the BEST part?!

Removing the tape!

This is the big reveal and it is always gratifying!


Song Of The Day:
When I think about all this painting I realize there are "Too Many Walls" that have taken my attention over the years.  Luckily this song by Cathy Dennis puts a positive sounding spin on the presence of lots of walls.  Yeah, it's a cheesy tie in but you think of a better spot to use this great 80's song!  :)

...