The Painting Fairy

She exists!  I know because she visited my house last night.  Lemme see if I can explain.

My kitchen related to-do for last night was to clean, prep and paint the dining room side of the half wall.  'Cause I was kind of getting tired of staring at this:

I had tracked down a close-enough paint color to use, so I dropped Colin off at his Thursday evening commitment, and then got down to painting business.

I ever so carefully taped off the molding and ceiling.  Then, I cut in using my angled brush.  Because the area was so tiny, that took like no time at all.  So, I cracked open the paint and got to rolling.  It seemed to be going on nicely, and I expected such since I was covering with almost the exact same color.  So, I finished rolling, did the clean-up and proceeded to sit back and admire my painting job.  Except that it looked funky.  And streaky, and all jacked up.  And horrible.  **cue lump in throat and near tears**  Honestly, I was baffled.  I've never had paint go on like this.  It looked totally uneven.  Like part of my roller hadn't gone into the paint (except it HAD- I kinda would have noticed if not.).  Or like maybe I hadn't stirred the paint well enough and the color wasn't even.  Boo hoo!!    By this time, I needed to go pick up Colin, so I forced myself to keep my chin up, and I reminded myself that I had only invested about an hour on this wall, so it really wasn't a big deal.  I'd just give it another coat tomorrow.  So, I picked up Colin, he confirmed it looked awful, and we both went to bed.

So, at some point during the night, unbeknownst to me, Colin and the dogs, the Painting Fairy must have paid a visit and rolled on another coat, 'cause when I hesitantly glanced at the wall this morning on my way to the Keurig, I was amazed:   it looks perfect!  I mean PERFECT!  Like no streaks, no stripeys, no nothing- except perfectly even color.  Woo to the hoo!  Since I didn't have to roll another coat, I had time to tape off the molding and touch it up with some fresh white in semi-gloss.  Oh, how I love freshly painted molding!

So, I declare the dining room side of this project DONE!

xo,

Emily

PS-  I am SO SORRY for the picture quality.  Have we determined that I do absolutely NO diy projects until after dark?  (Or, at least, I complete none of them until after dark...)

PS #2-  The only thing better than making a list is crossing stuff off of one, so let's have a look at my Kitchen List:

1. Clean, prime and paint dining room side of half wall.  We don't have any of the existing paint color, so that should be fun.
2. Clean, prime and paint the ceiling.  Again, we don't have that paint color either, so this may turn into painting the ceiling in the entire kitchen, dining/living room and hallway to the bedrooms since they're all connected. (Do I smell a painting party?)
3. Repair the crown that had to be removed to take down the upper cabinets.
4. Ditch the boob light in the kitchen.  I found a semi-flush fixture that is in the same collection as my pendents that I think will be perfect.  Only concern is being too matchy-matchy, but we'll see.
5. Prime and paint the breakfast room.  Goodbye red walls.  Yeah, I loved them, but now they've got to go!  And, I think I've decided on a paint color or two.
6. Figure out what to top the half wall with.  Currently, I have a 1x10 cut to size sitting up there.  Stay tuned for developments on this front.
7. Purchase and install a backsplash.  The jury is still out on this one.