I’ve written a little tune to the 1966 Rolling Stones song “Paint It Black”.  This story started with me wanting to paint my front door…

I see a blue door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
I hear the the canvas calling from the kitchen wall
I have to turn my head while the color calls

I see a line of cans and none are painted black
With brushes and ideas both always coming back
I see people turn their heads and quickly look my way
Like a new born baby it just happens ev’ry day

I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my blue door and it has been painted black
Maybe then the paint will fade, not an artist saint
It’s not easy facin’ up when your whole world is paint

No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue
I could not foresee this thing happening to you

If I look hard enough into the settin’ sun
My love for paint still with me before the mornin’ comes

I see a blue door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
I hear the the canvas calling from the bedroom wall
I have to turn my head while the color calls

Hmm, hmm, hmm,…

I wanna see it painted, painted colors
Black as night, color highlight
I wanna see the sun blended from the sky
I wanna see it painted, painted, painted, painted colors
Yeah!

I’m a paint hoarder.  Yes, I’m publicly admitting this.  I wanted to paint my front door yesterday, as I’m tired of the bright blue with the orange bricks.  I wanted a dark gray color, but with my challenge, I needed to use the paint I had.

Now I have a lot of paint, so no problem, right?  Wrong…

Of my 100+ gallons, that I do use on occasion, 90% of them are bad, either molded or dried up.  In efforts to still use some of the paint, I added some water to the latex ones that were too thick.  Some of the paints were good, but I didn’t have enough.  Honestly, I wanted to buy some paint yesterday.  I didn’t, but here’s what happened.  

The front door. I found some good paint for the front door, but it was black.  Not exactly the color I wanted, but it will work and accomplish “toning down” the door.  It was acrylic so I didn’t have to leave my door open for 3 days.

The kitchen cabinets. I needed to paint 4 top door cabinet frames.  They’re a color that doesn’t match anything in my kitchen.  The cabinet insides are bright colors, so I decided to try and salvage some paint and do the frames.  The paint was too thick, even after being watered down.  After trying to “embellish” them, it ended up looking like an 80’s sponge painting job gone wrong. It was so awful that I’m not even posting a photo of it.  The photo you see is the ‘before’ shot.  I will post the final at some point, as I’m painting the frames a dark gray tone with a glaze that will make it blend in with the slate.  This prevents me from having to take down the doors, sand them and refinish them, as I don’t have the supplies to do that.  This is definitely a trash society moment here, use what you have!

The loft. Our loft is a tiny little room at the top of the stairs where I have a TV for the kids.  It’s our casual ‘fun’ room.  One of the walls needed painting and Cole decided it should have a retro TV on it.  So I took all of the crappy paint and started the mural.  Actually, this is coming out nice, despite the awful paint situation.

The master bath. This is the one room in the house that hasn’t been touched and it looks awful.  I obviously can’t do a remodel, but I can spruce it up a bit.  I’m painting the old water damaged cabinets and painting the insane-asylum-white walls to a dark brown.  The paint is good, problem is?  Not enough of it.  I’m doing as many walls as I can, but I have to use a brush for all of it, as a roller would absorb too much and I’d get less mileage.

All in all, it will all turn out okay.  In the grand scheme of things, I’ve spent no money, some extra time and a little frustration.  I think this is the first day during the challenge that I’ve actually been irritated with it.

I will be doing some creative art project with the paint cans and then taking them to the recycling center…