Seeing Green

My office. I spend more time there than I do the following things:

- Patting Killian

- Feeding Killian

- Swatting at Killian

- Chasing down Killian after he escapes outside

- Scolding Killian

Which is saying something, because I spend a lot of time doing those things.

My office before was bleak to say the least. Plain white, 4 square walls, a modest closet for storage, and a lonely futon. Our first major furniture purchase for the house was my beloved desk from Pottery Barn (don't judge me, I used a coupon AND picked it up from the store to save on shipping). I love that desk for all the storage and ability to hide hideous and confusing wires. It's sturdy and comfortable and works perfectly for what I need to do. Oh, and Bobby likes it too.

Then there was paint. You all remember my infamous and loathsome "sample wall?" I knew I wanted a green room to kind of "go" with my business colors, but what shade? A full room of chartreuse would have been too much. I absolutely loved the "Paris Mint" shade, if only because it had the word "Paris" in it, but it wasn't right. I tried "Vegas Green," but thought the name would offend my dear mother, and really, I did sort of feel like I was at the Copa Cabana. I hated the quality of Lowes paint, so I had to branch out. Plus, their colors weren't right. Did you know Green is the hardest color in which to find the right shade?

Near impossible, I tell ya!

Then I went to Benjamin Moore. For those of you suspecting, no, I didn't choose a Pottery Barn color. Instead, I reached into my purse and pulled out...my wallet. It was the exact green I had been looking for and thanks to the Smarty Pants Paint Girl at Ace Hardware, she was able to match the color - to. the. tee. I took my gallons home along with some painters tape and had visions of horizontal stripes dancing in my head.

Opening those cans of flat and semi-gloss paint was like opening a can of whoop-a** (pardon moi, the effect would not be the same) on my plain white walls. They just had to go.

Thanks to the tutorial I found on Young House Love, one of my new favorite home how-to blogs, I was able to paint my horizontal stripes with ease, alternating strpies with flat finish and semi-gloss finish. It took me about 2 hours in one evening to paint the entire wall (just an accent wall, don't worry) with two coats.

The next evening, I did some math, marked out where my stripes were going to go, used a level to tape the areas, and went to town with the semi-gloss! If you don't include the 45 minute break to eat a Cadbury Egg and watch E! News Weekly during a bout of frustration, it took me only an hour to tape, level and paint the stripes. Difficult? I think not!

I'd also like to note that Bobby had no help in fixing my office. When I asked him to help me use the level, he said "nope, you're a big girl, you can figure it out." Just to spite his last words, I DID do it myself and it looks fabulous!

Ok, so for those of you who skipped my story just looking for pictures, here's the before, during and after...taken with my iPhone, so please excuse the lackluster quality. I know I've promised pictures of a lot of finished projects, so after Mexico, my goal is to give you a tour of pictures if you missed our housewarming party last weekend!

Enjoy!

It's hard to tell, but the stripes are just 2 different finishes: Flat and Semi-Gloss.