Be Tricky- Painting Tip.

There are moments in my life that I think, "I can't be the ONLY housewife who never grew out of her awkward/clumsy phase."  Most of the time I think that only to make myself feel better.

From this realization however, comes a wellspring of ingenuity (on occasion.) Think of it as being tricky, fooling your task into thinking that you are really quite adept at what you're trying to accomplish.

My small painting project recently was just such an occasion.  I was planning to paint only the kitchen-side of our half wall (more on the evolution of that project in a future post.)

As any do-it-herselfer worth her salt knows, you MUST tape for a project and put down plastic. Even the most experienced painter with the most steady hand will (*snicker, NOT me anyway...*) will experience the very best Murphy's Law has to offer.

~IF~ I were speaking from experience, I'd say it's entirely possible she'd somehow manage to dribble a cute little zig-zaggy trail of paint across the carpet in the process.

Impatient and impulsive as I am, I determined that the inspiration and motivation to do this project must not be postponed even by a quick trip to the store for plastic sheeting/dropcloths. I considered for a millisecond not putting down plastic and just cutting in by hand, then I remembered realized what I would know IF I had been speaking from experience as I mentioned above.

I figured without a handy dropcloth at my disposal, my best bet would probably be to cut a couple garbage bags apart and lay them out.  Thus began the scavenge. After pulling several things out from under the sink and wondering what that funky smell might be, I discovered that I was nearly out of garbage bags and was still too lazy to go buy more of those at the moment too.

As I sat back on my heels I came eye-to-eye (plank?) with my food storage drawer, and it suddenly dawned on me...


Have you ever been through a house that's for sale or a model home with sticky plastic sheeting on the floor to protect carpets?  It occurred to me that my Glad Press 'n' Seal wrap has nearly the same texture- would that stick to the carpet?

It WORKED!  Curious dog not required for effectiveness...  I will be using this for ALL future painting projects. I imagine I could probably use it right around the edge to affix regular plastic dropcloths to the carpet as well- I always tape the heck out of mine and somehow still manage to kick them out of place.


I suppose this entire experience makes the revelation of my new half-accent-wall pretty anticlimactic, but here that is too:

I'm playing nice in Tip Me Tuesday- What fun!