I suppose there are many milestones as new parents await the arrival of their child including the first sonogram, assembling the crib, the baby shower,etc. I am genuinely excited about all of them, save one-painting the baby's room. You see, on my Scale of Unpleasant Things painting ranks somewhere between single-ply toilet paper (senseless!) and people who refer to themselves in the third person (insufferable!). And equal to people who carelessly overuse exclamation marks while blogging (annoying!!!). So with my negative build-up it is little wonder that I have had a rough time completing this important task. My mom even volunteered to help me because she enjoys painting. Seriously. I'm convinced she was afraid I would half-ass the job.
We are going with a jungle theme in the nursery and have purchased a cute set bedding set that includes a wallpaper border. We decided to place the border at chair rail height and paint the walls below it a green to match the green in the border. Trouble is, the manufacturer of the border apparently invented a new color green for this particular border. Because I can't find a green paint to match. ANYWHERE. I have multiple sample cards from several paint stores. Granny Smith? Too light. Pepper Grass? Too dark. Green Grapes? Too grapey.
Actually, let me backtrack. On my first attempt I actually bought a gallon of paint. Under the flourescent lights of the hardware store Riverview looked like a winner. On the walls of the nursery, however, Riverview looks, perhaps ironically, but not amusingly, like babyshit green. Amanda and my mom thought this was pretty funny because a blind man could have picked a better match for the border. I protested about the flourescent lights, but they weren't buying it. Mom and I then selected samples from a different store. None matched perfectly, but appeared to be in the right neighborhood. Until we got outside in the sunshine. Out of the flourescent light they weren't even close to matching. My mom said she wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't been there herself. It was some vindication for my earlier miscue, but little consolation because I still don't have any paint. Tomorrow Amanda and I will venture out to try again. Given my recent paint history, I'm betting tomorrow will be a doozy.
10 comments:
Question... why must it match exactly? Perhaps try to find some complimentary shade of green that will accent the border as opposed to clashing with it. Plus then maybe use a wrinkled up plastic bag and dab it against the wall to create a unique finish that might look line ferns in the jungle. I've never tried this myself, but I enjoy the shows on HGTV where they try stuff like this.
Oh, another thought... if you are planning to paint tomorrow... go right now and stay at a Holiday Inn Express tonight... trust me.
and thank you for putting Eddie Murphy in my brain.
Doesn't have to match exactly, but I'm telling ya this border is so weird that we can't really find one that is compatible either.
And the Eddie Murphy connection you made is hilarious. Definitely wasn't thinking that when I wrote it.
"Make you feel faint in your butt."
Why don't you go use the color match gizmo that you stick the border in and it will do a custom blend to match the color?
Or maybe you did and I'm just an idiot.
erinbee- we haven't, but the border has a weird pale, pixilated look(the way it's printed on the paper) so I'm not sure there is enough to scan-that is one of the things we'll be trying today, however
Is it really that bad that you can't just leave it? It's not like the baby will care! Besides, if the really is, um, poop green, it may be good to have the color on the wall to start--you'd be surprised where some of the baby poop may end up! :)
And bad news...in the next year and a half I can guarantee you're going to be referring to yourself in the third person!
Karen-It's pretty bad. If I had my way, of course, there wouldn't have been any painting to begin with. As far talking in the third person-I see your point. Guess I'll just annoy myself more than I already do.
The great thing about a jungle theme is that you can enforce good behavior with the threat of jungle predators. Just mention tigers or the V.C. or even packs of ferocious baboons as you tuck them in and a night of uninterrupted sleep will be your reward! When they get older switch to a nautical theme, show them Jaws on DVD and you can relax with a beer as the dreaded carpet sharks keep the wee one rooted to the spot in bed all night.
"the dreaded carpet sharks"
priceless... I nearly spewed Diet Coke out of my nose when I read that...
btw, does that work with J Mo? If so, I might just try it with B & A, if I can keep a straight face.
Rob--I'm not sure who Chris is, but it's not st4rbux Chris. We haven't told J about carpet sharks. Actually, she's in more danger from carpet bunnies of the dust variety. I don't know if carpet sharks would work; I can tell you what has worked is putting a gate in her bedroom door and letting her go to town. Eventually she figured out that she's got no choice but to go to sleep.
Sorry B for the hijack. Good luck with the color; we never bothered painting J's room at all and are trying to decide if we REALLY feel like painting Jaxon's room (I'm leaning toward no...).
J.Mo's room is baby blue, perfect for a little girl. and we're putting my son-to-be in a beige room with quilts and rainbows and faeries on the walls.
psychological/gender-bias experimentation? no, we're just lazy.
(ok, no actual rainbows or faeries; but quilts alone didn't sound quite effeminate enough)
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