Monday, May 9, 2016

We are Curious Purple



Do You like decorating?  George and I do, possibly because it`s extremely rare for us.

One such attempt followed the recent departure of beloved SpartaCat - we commemorated this agonising event by chucking out the settees he`d ravaged for years, buying ones with all their own filling, and starting to paint the whole neglected house.  

So far we`ve done the living room walls and half a bookcase - the undercoat half.


It turned out to be ridiculously fiddly:
the SuperFab roller we`d bought for drip-free painting didn`t fit between the shelves, and our Bumper Pack of Budget Brushes!! needed constantly extracting from glutinous paint, bristle by bristle.

The original colour of bookcase - determinedly Brown - required multi-coating, much of which then had to be sanded off to force the shelves back in.

When we reached the never-used cupboard, its contents burst forth in a cloud of potent mildew:  CD`s, box sets, several years` Christmas cards, photos, a shoe-stretch spray (that I really could have done with the other day), agents` details of every house we`ve ever viewed and a startled family of hamsters...

We persevered, remembering previous results had sometimes been gratifying.  But we`d forgotten all the collateral devastation - the sticky, mangled brushes and paint splattered surfaces and piles of tester pots that we hate now...

And the recriminations - Look – you`ve painted over the handles again and that`s obviously your drip on the carpet - it won`t come out, you know!  And Whose idea was 
Echo of Tree - it`ll never match walls that have been Deeply Truffled...

Suddenly you`re addicted - no time to stop for lunch, just put a few more sugars in your tea.  Of course the house is a Mess - it`s not worth tidying and we certainly can`t invite people over the threshold till we Finish, but this isn`t quite the look we wanted (what was the look...?).  

Maybe if we tried that other shade…  maybe if we just painted one wall and then we could try-

Oh Sob - it`s Just No Uuuuuuse!!




4 comments:

JW10 said...

Lovely blog, Dolores. Smiles all round.

Sorry about my lateness. Disappeared on a week's holiday (various places: Musselburgh, Livingston, Edinburgh, etc.)

You know I quite enjoy decorating when I am in the mood for it. All our rooms have one wall papered and the other three painted. I will do the emulsion first, then paint the woodwork before the challenge.

The wall papering bit is the more harder of the disciplines. Completing the Rubik's Cube is easier than cutting round switches. Still, it's only one wall so patience will out. Finally, trimming the side of the final roll to size is terrifying, especially if all the other rolls have been used. Sweat perspires my forehead. I take up my scissors. Try to take a steady breath. I confront my demon...
Forget it.
I go to the phone and call out my surgeon friend. His surgical hands will get the job done.

Dolores Doolittle said...

Please send details of your surgeon friend! Splendid to see you, JW, and trust you had Joy-filled holiday (I know beauteous Edinburgh, but not no-doubt-beauteous others).

Yet another talent of yours! I`ve never wallpapered and don`t think I`ll be plunging into it after your comment - involves traumas I couldn`t have Dreamed of. (we don`t even Paint round our light switches - we like them to boldly blend in...).

Would also leave the woodwork, were it not splatted (not blended)with wall colour. Any gentle scraping hints?

JW10 said...

As a professional (for that read- amateur of varied ability) I can tell you, Dolores, it's all about preparation.

Smudges on the woodwork are hard to scrape off without damaging the wood so always put masking tape round the skirting and door frames. After you have two-coated your wall peel the tape off. Violins! The sticky tape has a secondary purpose in that it will lift off any dust that was living on the wood.

You really should try wall papering. The fun thing is stripping off the old wall paper. I could well be the only person that likes doing this. It is so therapeutic tearing strips off the wall.

All in all, I enjoy decorating (when in the mood). A big bottle of cola and a digital radio blaring away and I'd be happy at my work.

Dolores Doolittle said...

Ah, Masking Tape - how George loves it and yet, how I Don`t! The idea is great, but the tape is So Hard to position with precision. And when you try to get it Off it won`t let go, bringing new paint and ancient wallpaper with it.

Of Course you`re the only person who likes wallpapering - have you considered renting yourself lucratively out?

And talking vaguely of Colour, I had a fearsome experience this morning! Yesterday I bought a new moisturising cream-for-the-decrepit
that promised to transform and revitalise in magical ways!

Which it did - it looked smooth & creamy coming out of tube so I sploshed it on merrily and all of a sudden, it turned Yellow - you could see it happening as it hit the skin - the cheek, the nose, the forehead, the neck... I WAS Curious Yellow.

Where`s that Masking Tape...