My husband and I both work from home. He works full time and I help out with the paperwork. When we moved into our home last year we decided to put his office in the front room - HUGE MISTAKE! A lot of his work is done over the phone. Having two small kids running around, with the constant shhusshhing from the front room just about drove me mad. I loved having my own room upstairs where I could leave papers out on my desk, and half finished sewing projects on the sewing table, without comments from Mr. Clean. But practicality wins every time and I put my "creative crap" downstairs in the dungeon where I haven't touched it since. My beautiful Pottery Barn desk is front-and-center so I've had to change my work habits and actually put things away. Sigh. The room was a beautiful pale yellow (not one of my typical faves but it works in here), but there wasn't any pizazz. So one night I got brave and decided to faux paint. I haven't done this technique in years, and I was trying to use supplies I had on hand. So here's the recap of the adventure:
Coat 1 - Beautiful rust, umber brown. Paint the wall, stand back to analyze, it's really dark, but I'm doing a lighter coat on top so it should be fine.Coat 2 - I water down a lighter shade and apply to the brown, then use a huge soft bristle brush to "swirl" it into the brown. After finishing the wall and massaging my sore arm I stand back to admire. Ewww! Definitely not the look I was going for.
Coat 3 - Repaint the whole wall the lighter shade I used in coat 2. This time I'll do dark on light and see if it helps.Coat 4 - Apply the watered down brown, dig in with the big brush and swirl away. Stand back to admire - Double eww!
Coat 5 - Repeat coat 3 to start with a blank canvas. I've been at this for hours now. Fatigue and female emotion are setting in.
Coat 6 - I finally decide to throw some money at this project and buy a can of overpriced glaze. I mix in a bit of the umber and do a minimal coat a swirl. OK - now we're getting somewhere, but it's still missing that "wow" factor.
Coat 7 - Oh wait! I've got this gorgeous oil-rubbed bronze paint leftover from another project. Let's try that in the glaze. I finish the whole wall. Oops - now it's too dark. Crap!!! (picture me exhausted, filthy and fighting back tears)
Coat 8 - Add glaze to the lighter color and put yet another "swirly" coat on. OK - I'm done.
Coat 9 - Yuck! What a night. I found out the oil-rubbed bronze was oil based and the fumes really got to me. I was up all night throwing up. You know it's bad when you decide the bathroom rug will make for a fine bed and the towel on the floor will be a great blanket. Now I'm looking at the wall and it's too light. Will this ever end? I get the oil-rubbed bronze/glaze mixture out again (with the windows open this time) and add another coat. What?!? The mixture's chemical compound has completely changed and now it's this thick goopy mess. I refuse to spend another dime on this stupid wall so I dig in anyway.
Finally, 9 coats later (plus whatever was on the wall previously) it is just ok. I'm sure no-one else thinks anything about it, but it doesn't look anything like what I was going for. I will redo it someday, but for now it will just have to do. I hate this wall.
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