5.21.2011

Fun with painter's tape.

The title of this post is completely misleading. We did not, in fact, have "fun" in the true sense of "Wow, this is a fabulously good time; let's do it again soon!" when we taped off our half bath in order to paint stripes on the walls last night. Why? Well.

1) The tape jumped off of the wall.
2) The tape made itself into a nasty green tapeball.
3) The tape got more wrinkly than an advertisement for Loreal Anti-Aging Cream.
4) The tape began slowly sloping downhill instead of going perfectly straight as we demanded.
5) The tape caused Rick to use language he doesn't use on any of the other 364 days of the year.

That's right: he said "What in tarnation...?!"

(Actually, I don't know anyone who uses that language on any of the 365 days of the year.)
Anyway, I'm certain that plenty of people have used painter's tape with absolutely no problems, maybe even while holding an infant in one arm and pumping a shake-weight in the other. We, however, were more than a little impaired at the task. Plus the tape was laughing at us. Maniacally.

In the end, though, we were victorious, and even though it was well past my bedtime (9:15, to be exact...I operate on the time schedule of a person eligible for AARP) we quickly painted on our stripes in order to avoid waking up in the morning to find all of our tape--and our dignity--hanging limply from the walls. Here's the bathroom's progress in pictures:

Step One: Tell the birds that they need to find a new place to nest.
Step Two: Prime, apply base coat (Benjamin Moore's White Diamond), and take out vanity.
Step Three: Seek therapy to reconcile your newfound aversion to painter's tape.
Step Four: Laugh at how much strife your stripes (Ben Moore's Ice Cube) caused.

Despite all of the attitude the tape gave us, though, and our seeming incompetence at manipulating it, we think our stripes turned out pretty well. The edges are crisp and the stripes are even, and there is enough subtle contrast between the two colors that our efforts were worth it.


Good thing, too, because if I hadn't liked it, and had politely asked to redo it, I'm pretty sure Rick would have wrapped my mouth up in painter's tape so he couldn't hear my protests as our bathroom continued to exist with striped walls.

6 comments :

  1. Rebecca6/01/2011

    I laughed through your entire post. I also have no idea what a shake weight is but it sounds...interesting? LOL Your striped walls look great!

    Thanks for visiting my blog and the tip on cleaning my mat. I think I threw away the plastic cover - oops, so a clean up will have to do until I remember to grab a new one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks really nice and super professional! We did the same thing in our half bath, but I did have to put down the shake weight while we were measuring. http://viewalongtheway.blogspot.com/2010/01/begin...

    I think your nice striped background will be the perfect thing to modernize the bird houses, so you should really think about adding them back in.

    ReplyDelete
  3. bahahahahaha! I'm sorry the painters tape turned into a hot wrinkly mess -- but the end result is awesome!! I love the subtlety of it too! You're on your way to a snazzy new bathroom!!! <3

    ps: I had asked my husband to bake them for me =) He refused and left me to fling butter and sugar all over the walls of my kitchen. Then came home in time to eat the ball of cookie dough. haha! <3

    ReplyDelete
  4. Looks great!! thank GOD you love it :) This was a funny post, but I don't think you would have been able to laugh about it if you didn't like the final product!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Carol@thedesignpages6/01/2011

    I'm not laughing AT you but WITH you! Try Frog Tape next time. I swear you will find it so much easier to deal with. I'm loving your stripes though. Does that make it better?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for dropping by my blog and leaving a comment. I really enjoy your blog! I'll definitely be back again. The stripes look great!

    ~Sarah from Ugly House Lovely Home http://uglyhouselovelyhome.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

I love to hear from my readers, so don't be shy. :) Thanks for being here!

Want to read more?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...