as another working week draws to a close I hope you are nearing the time when you can kick back with a G&T (or indeed any other beverage of your choice) and put on some cocktail hour tunes and start relaxing.
I myself have missed the point of it being Friday afternoon and embarked on a foolish and poorly thought-through plan to start repainting my living room.
I have been pondering the redecoration for many an evening now, sitting and thinking through colour schemes which will surely bring out the best in my humble but happy space. Then I boldly took the bull by the horns on the way home from work last night, stopping off at a large unnamed hardware store. As I strode confidently into the store I told myself "I'll be out of here in 15 minutes flat" as a result of all my careful thinking and planning. How wrong could I be. Over an hour later I was still trailing up and down the same three paint aisles, looking increasingly panicked and dishevelled. I looked with desperation towards the people who came into the aisle and confidently picked up their chosen paint and turned to leave. "Take me with you" I cried inside. They studiously avoided eye contact not wanting to be sucked into the vortex of misery surrounding me.
How can there possibly be so many different shades of white? It's like a sick game that hardware stores like to play for their own amusement. I bet they sit laughing and pointing at the video footage of customers much like myself trying to discern the difference between Almond White and Brilliant White. After a while, I was on the verge of tears and finally made my way to the tills. The cashier, in an attempt to be helpful, told me I was eligible for a third tin of paint free and pointed me back to the aisles. I tried to assure that I'd rather poke my eyes out with the paintbrushes at this point but she was not taking no for an answer and back I went. I eventually left with the requisite supplies and made my way home where I sat in a darkened room and stared at the wall silently for several hours trying to replenish the parts of my soul that had been sucked out in the preceding hour (kidding...or am I?).As an aside at this point I feel compelled to share with you my discovery of what is surely the most pretentious name in the world for a shade of paint- A Whisper of Pashmina. Can you believe it? I'm almost too ashamed to buy it for my bathroom renovation. Also, if any product promises to strip 15 layers of paint in 1-2 hours, don't believe it. It's lying and will in fact do virtually no stripping at all, leaving you feeling ripped off and super sad.
Anyway, back to the living room. Having bought the paint less than 24 hours ago it is now burning a hole in my virtual pocket and is demanding to be used. Have I preceded any activity by carefully packing away my belongings, covering the appropriate areas with masking tape, dropping drop cloths with abandon? Kind of, but within thirty seconds of starting I managed to drop paint on a tiny bit of floor without the drop cloth on it. Because I'm approaching this in a totally disorganised way I'm going to have to paint section by section so here's a snap of the most easily accessed section which I've started with. It's only got one coat on at this stage. So, that's pretty much my plans for the weekend. I hope you all have much nicer things planned.
