My pink living room!

While shopping at Walmart the other day, I got it in my head it was finally time to buy paint for my living room. I had a revelation the other day when I finally removed my computer desk and put it in my dining area, PINK PAINT! I was torn between "cotton candy pink" and "from the heart" on the above Better Home and Gardens paint guide.

While most people would take this home and compare it with furniture, I did not. I'm way too impulsive. I walked around and did the rest of my shopping, returning to the paint department before leaving. I couldn't leave without paint! And at only $15/gallon, it was so much cheaper than I thought it would be.

When my parents split up and I was about 8 years old, my mother would paint people's houses as a part-time job. My sister and I would tag along, taping off edges, painting windows, etc. We'd get a few dollars for helping sometimes, but it wasn't really work to me, it was so fun! My mom really taught us how to paint really well. So I definitely learned from the best. 

There's something inherent in women that, I think, makes us such better painters than men. Maybe it's the attention to detail and meticulous mature we have. Men, in my experience, are too heavy with the rollers, don't know how to keep a wet edge, get paint on everything, and never put enough paint on the roller. So generally, they're terrible at painting! Now I'm sure there are some men out there that paint well, like my dad ha, but most should leave it to us women.

After only 4 hours of painting the room by myself the room was finished. I painted late Tuesday night after work and early Wednesday morning. I didn't even tape off any edges; I hate painter's tape! Such a waste of time. And if it doesn't stick to the wall, and it never does 100% of the time, you get paint on the trim and it's dry before you notice!

I love the natural light of this room that faces the front of my house. There's a beautiful old live oak tree that allows the cats to watch squirrels and cackle at birds all day. The downside of that live oak though, palmetto bugs. Bugs that are up to two inches long, sometimes bigger! They sneak my apartment during the warmer months, just to hang out and walk along the ceilings, then they go back outside. My house is so old, probably built in the 1920s, so the caulk in the window panes let's them sneak past.

Btw, that Yo La Tango album, "Popular Songs", propped up again my crate of records is all I've been listening to on vinyl lately. Ira signed it when I went to the show back in January! Such a great album.

The color goes so well with my couch! My boyfriend was over last night and said it looked like "pepto-pink", but I think it's darling. I originally planned on painting this room a rose petal pink. That just seemed too dark and I think it would have darkened the room. This color makes it so lively and feminine!

When I first moved in, my friend, Jason, and I painted my bathroom and bedroom. The bathroom a spearmint green, and my bedroom a tigers-eye gold. Both rooms, like this, have the wainscotting, paneling applied to the lower 3-5 feet of the wall, so the painting surface area is almost cut in half. I painted all three large rooms with one gallon of paint in each room! 

It's crazy the difference that a few coats of paint can make on a room. My mantle at Christmas, left, and now, right. The mantle and fireplace become a focal point of the room now. Before, with all white walls, it just blended in with the room.

Even the cats love it! In all reality, I don't think they noticed aside from the lingering smell of latex paint the past few days. They just want their sunshine.

For those of you that are bored with white walls, consider a few coats of paint to brighten a room. It is worth the money and labor! Questions? Comments!