Triumphs and Trials

So although I love my blog to be filled with triumphs of things that make me feel accomplished (selfish? maybe... but this is my happy place), I think it's only fair to show things that don't exactly work out as planned.

Since I've just recently begun moving things around on the walls of our home (we are going on almost 4 years here. Pathetic that it's taken me this long? yes.), I have been left with lots of little holes in the wall. Some were here from the previous owners. Some were from hangings that just didn't go well. By the way- previous owner's holes in the wall are pretty helpful! They found the center of the wall in rooms so we didn't even have to measure! :)

Another problem (which was a good problem to have) with buying a home that is literally move in ready is we have never painted the main rooms. Our dining room, living room, hallway and master bedroom are a neutral shade of khaki that we like. Khaki is a hard color to get (it can't have a pink or peach tint, and it can't have too much brown- we found in our other house that finding the perfect shade is very difficult and we ended up with a peachy/pink room). We haven't  grown tired of it (although I do dream of gray walls) enough to go through the process of moving everything and repainting. Which leaves us to the problem of this post...

What the heck is this wall color anyway??? In order to do touch ups, I needed to know this. We had only been here a few months when I needed to touch up and this was before I really knew much about paint.

The previous owners told us the color was called "China Doll" from Sherwin Williams. I somehow managed to remember that from a casual conversation when I asked about it on the house tour. Glad I have a practically photogenic memory when it comes to names of things. I am an absolute die hard Home Depot Behr paint believer. Behr paint is beautiful, thick, and goes on so well. So I had the SW "China Doll" color matched to Behr. This is great until they ask you what sheen you want... flat, flat enamel, eggshell, satin, semi-gloss or gloss... my eyes literally glossed over. I tried to think if I'd ever really noticed. Like I said before: when we moved here it was still a paint learning process. I knew flat paint was, well flat (for lack of a better word. It has no luster). It almost feels like chalk to me. I didn't think that was it. I knew flat enamel was relatively new. And I knew the walls had been painted for a while, so I didn't think that could be it. Eggshell was my best bet, because I knew satin was more shiny, and I knew our walls weren't shiny. The eggshell sheen is my go to choice anyways. It wipes off easily and doesn't show brush/roller marks like satin does. So I went with eggshell.

My first test wall patch was in the living room. This room is fairly bright with lots of natural light. It was for sure a close match, but I could still see the difference. I ended up painting the whole wall. It was good as new. I put the paint away (semi-frustrated) and didn't touch it for 3 years.

As I was hanging my collage and window print in the master bedroom I realized there were alot of unpatched holes. I decided to try the touch up paint again. Maybe there was too much natural light in the living room? Maybe the original wall color had faded? It was worth a shot in the master since I already had the paint. I lovingly call our bedroom a cave. It's dark (which I love). It gets the morning sun (which we get up before sunrise anyways). It's cool in the summer, warm in the winter. Literally a perfect place to sleep. So maybe the touch up faux pa wouldn't show up here. .

Wrong:

See what I mean that its like the exact same color, but the touch up is shiny. My final verdict is the paint already on the wall must be flat enamel. I really don't think it's flat because it does wipe up well. Or maybe SW's eggshell is less shiny??

I like shiny/unshiny in my newly striped bathroom:

But it's just not working for touchups.

I did touch up a few places here:

You really can't tell the difference here because you don't walk by this wall sideways. Kinda hard to explain, but this picture is above our headboard. The one that showed the shiny touch ups was right by the door. It caught my eye and drove me crazy every time I passed it.

What I ended up doing (and thankfully we have paneling), is I painted the entire panel. Here is the finished result:

The 2 panels on the left are repainted. The right panel is not. In direct light if you are standing back looking at the whole wall you can see the difference, but at quick glace it is much better!

I think if this hadn't worked we would have just repainted in some shade of gray. But this was much less work, and seeing as our house is for sale, I really don't want to put the effort into painting whole rooms if I don't have to.

I have high expectations for the office. See all the holes I've patched??

Since we painted the office after moving in, and I still have the original paint, I hope this will take the "patch" better. I should mention that after sanding the patch it is always wise to do a coat of primer. That way the patch absorbs the primer not the paint. We'll see how it goes and I'll update with another post the results.

So there are lots of triumphs to celebrate, and a trial here or there to remedy. I guess it could be worse, like not knowing the wall color at all, or having to work around wall paper, or something really tragic like that. I guess I should count my blessings, not the trials!!