When I finished working on the bathroom walls last night and went to bed, I officially had the “What the hell was I thinking?” phase of the project. I knew it would be tedious and time consuming to paint these stripes on the bathroom walls, but I think I underestimated how long it would take.
Fairly late in the day I realized that I had approached this project the wrong way. My idea was to tape off the top and bottom rows with painter’s tape running horizontally around the entire room, then tape off the strips in those top and bottom rows. Then I came back and taped off the stripes in the middle row and painted them. I think this part of the plan was solid. If I had to do it all over again, I would do it the same way.
My next idea is where things really slowed me down. I decided to paint the stripes with the main colors first (i.e. the actual swatches I purchased) before mixing the rest of the paint so I could see how much paint I needed for each color. So I masked off the first color and painted it.
Each color required three coats since the Sherwin Williams paint swatches are not actually paint. They are tinted foundation. But since the paint would have cost about three times as much, I decided to stick with the samples.
After applying three colors this way (taping off that single color, applying three coats, removing the tape, then moving on to the next color), I decided to tape off all the main colors at once.
I don’t know if it was quicker, but it felt more satisfying not having to stop and do more taping after every color.
Looking back, I wish I had taken a completely different path. Given how little paint each color requires (there are only about six stripes of each color), I wish I had mixed all my colors first and then taped off every other stripe on the top and bottom rows and painted them all. Then I would be ready to paint all the other colors in those two rows the next day (using delicate surface painter’s tape). This way I could have finished two rows in about two days. And then the middle row would have taken two days using the same process.
But now that I’ve painted random stripes on the top and bottom rows, I’ve complicated things and it’s going to take longer to get them all done. *Sigh* Oh well. Live and learn, right?
I’ll just keep going. I’m really not frustrated…yet. And I don’t really doubt my overall decision to put this design on the walls. You all know how much I love lengthy and repetitive creative projects. I know they can get a little boring as you watch, follow the progress and eagerly await the final results. But I could spend my entire day working on tedious and repetitive creative projects with a good podcast playing in my ears and be perfectly happy.
Anyway, I have another day of painting ahead of me. And probably a few more after that. Once I get these walls done, the rest of this bathroom will be a breeze! I have the ceiling light and it is so cute, but I will share it with you later this week. I have the mirror and it is perfect. So at this point I have everything I need to finish this bathroom. I just need to get busy and do it.
