Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Porpoise floors and Pepper walls.

I am loving the new little dining room space that the addition on our house has provided. However it has a plywood floor. It's not that I can't afford flooring if I wanted it, but I just can't decide. The lino in the kitchen is full of potholes and marks and really needs to be changed. I'd love to put tile through the entire area, but....

I have a vision for the kitchen. This will include moving the cupboards around and relocating the bathroom door so its not right off the kitchen. Ok, I don't plan to move the cupboards, they will be replaced. Eventually. I know and accept that it's in the 10-year plan, but I just can't bring myself to replace the flooring then have to redo it in in just a few years.

I don't know the science of genes, but somehow my sister Connie and I, although coming from the same gene pool, are nothing alike when it comes to renos and decor. She'd just as soon change the flooring and paint the walls than wash them. I however, will do a room, and chances are you could come back next decade and check it out.

But I decided enough was enough, the least I could do is throw down a bucket of floor paint. So that was my project for today.

First a coat of primer:



"Porpoise" is the colour I chose. It's a lighter shade of the "Ground Pepper" that's on the walls. Then I figured, what the heck - I might as well roll it up the ugly old ivory door while I'm at it, before the trim gets put on:



Hmmm. I wonder if floor paint will fill in the potholes of linoleum:


It does a pretty good job. However this creates a fairly large expanse of plain glossy porpoise-grey. So I must get creative. In the aisles of Home Depot I find Rust-oleum Epoxy Shield Decorative Colour Chips. This is a product intended to spice up concrete floors. I assume it will work for plywood as well. This little box is 13 bucks and when I open it, I discover it's basically just little broken bits of paint chips. Ah well, I think it will accomplish what I need. One box is more than enough for the kitchen and dining room.
All-in-all, I think it's gonna be okay. Of course it's still wet and I haven't had a chance to walk on it to see if these little flecks of paint chips are going to cause slivers in bare feet in the middle of the night. Or if it will all sweep off the first time I haul out the broom or mop. It's actually quite camoflage-ish, I may not have to use a broom and mop.

I paint like my mother. I am pretty much covered from head to toe by the time I finish the floor. I took pictures of my hands and legs (I was wearing shorts) I uploaded them and realized the hair on my legs is about 2 and half inches long. Delete. Delete. Delete.

Basically my legs looked like my hands:




Leaving myself a nice little path to the washroom, I hauled my exhausted body to my computer to blog while I wait for it to dry. I decide I deserve a glass of wine. Thankfully I left a full bottle sitting on the counter, instead of in the other room beyond 12 feet of wet paint, where it's normally kept.

Standing on my unpainted path I can just reach the bottle. Crap! The cork screw is in that drawer to the far left! My path is too far from the counter for me to hike myself up onto the counter so I can crawl across to the drawer.

Neither did I think to make myself a plate of nachos. I guess if I renoed more often I'd think of these things.

2 comments:

carmenrose said...

Porpoise is the colour I picked for my house! Then I got the chip home and realized that's what I already have! Back to the drawing board...

mari said...

I'm inspired! I think I'll try it! Should I go a shade lighter than my walls now or pick a dark brown and do a faux wood finish?? hmmm...

Happy Swim-a-versary to Me!

These two selfies were taken exactly 75 minutes apart.  On January 8, 2023.  The first, as I was proudly about to walk into my very first sw...