Living in a house for an extended period often means that your decor efforts are less the spectacular before-an-afters and are more simply maintaining the projects you did awhile back.
Example? The paint in our master bedroom.
We had used up every last drip of paint when we last painted our bedroom. Unfortunately, a number of dings and spots had presented where the paint has come off. Not to mention a large white in-your-face spackled area next to the light switch. Oh, you know. . . for the last three years or so. I had tried looking through our paint fan decks to see if I could remember the name of the paint color, but it was to no avail. But I recently got the idea to just buy one of the 3500 in-stock $3.99 paint samples from the Benjamin Moore store. After all, I only needed a very small amount of paint.
I carefully chose what looked to be a matching color and brought it home and painted over all the white spots. At first it looked perfect, and I prematurely celebrated my DIY genius. Unfortunately it dried much darker than the surrounding color, which gave my bedroom walls an insane polka dot look.
Worse than ever. See?
My plan was to admit defeat and and buy another $3.99 paint sample in a lighter shade, but then I decided to try mixing my own color. Luckily, I already owned a can of cream colored paint, (our trim color) so I carefully mixed it into the original pot and got to work.
It took two tries to match a light enough color, but the end result is 99.99% perfect! You would never notice the difference unless it was pointed out, and even then it’s only due to a slight difference in sheen. See?
So many of my household DIY projects are not of the “Wow, look at that!” variety, but rather are based on making formerly ugly elements invisible. You know, making things inoffensive. (Remember my idea for a blog called The Inoffensive Decorator?)
So now I can turn on my bedroom light without getting annoyed again. Hooray!
The Inoffensive Decorator strikes again!
Have you discovered any clever DIY solutions recently? Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Yay for paint!
I finally touched up the area around our thermostat. Over two years ago our boiler was replaced and we got a new, smaller thermostat. I got the paint out and then kept going to touch up other areas and painted a small wall around the door to the basement.
Very satisfying, yes?
Katy
Katy you have inspired me to try again to tackle some of my projects in this very old house we have lived in for 15 yrs. I tend to bite off way more than I can chew, become overwhelmed, and quit. But I realized that one huge project has been sitting undone for 5 yrs, and if I had just done a little every day it would be done. So that’s what I am aiming for- about 10 minutes a day. and hopefully 5 yrs from now it will be done!
And you may find that 10 minutes turns into 60 once you get started.
Katy
I wanted to figure out a way to store extra toilet paper closer to the toilet so my kiddos aren’t yelling from the pot that they need more TP. They can’t reach and grab it from under the sink without dismounting.
I found some cool holders that hang from the tank but they were spendy and I was afraid the boys would accidentally miss and pee on the TP. So, I took a ribbon, attached a washer on one end and a 5″ or so long bamboo skewer on the other. I laced the ribbon thru three rolls of TP, the bamboo skewer holds them on and hung the washer on a nail next to the TP holder on the cabinet right next to the toilet. It was free and solved our problem!!
Great solution! I have zero storage space in my bathroom, (pedestal sink plus no shelving) so I keep a lidded basket in the small space between the toilet and the sink. I make sure to keep a single roll of t.p. in it at all times. And I put a fresh roll up when we have company.
Also, I am the only female in my house, so it takes a long time to go through a roll. 🙂
Katy
I have had a three-dollar yard sale wicker chair for about 15 years. It is a great chair but of a weird brownish/pinkish color. I spent $35 for one yard of fantastic tapestry for the cushion. I put the chair in the free ads in the paper. Just before I sold it, I took the chair to Lowe’s for paint to match so when I get another chair someday, the paint will match the spendy cushion will look the way I want in the painted wicker chair. I spent $2.98 or the sample and will store it. Your paint story reminded me of my last week’s paint chore.
If you cut off a square inch of paint and top of sheetrock, Lowe’s can match it perfectly. A fine young man held the chair up to the machine that matches and then set the camera part of the machine on the leg of the chair to get the paint match.
It’s a great match.
Great story. I think I need to see a picture of the chair!
Katy
I sold it, but the woman might take a picture of it for me. It was not at all fancy. Unlike most wicker chairs, it was comfortable.