It’s that time of year when we all want our homes to look amazing, but we don’t have much time for huge home projects, or the desire to spend huge amounts of extra money. So what can ya do? Paint, of course. Paint is almost always the answer. In fact, I’ll let you in on a little secret. When 2014 started, I decided that this was going to be “the year of paint”. I knew I wouldn’t have much time on my hands with the baby in the house, but with paint I knew I could still do lots of little projects that would make me feel so much better about my surroundings almost instantly. It turned out that I held true to the “the year of paint” thing, and earlier this Fall I partnered with CIL to visit a bunch of Home Depot stores and meet with customers to help them choose their perfect paint colours.
When CIL contacted me again this Holiday season to see if I wanted to come up with a fun little paint project to share, I knew just what I would do. You saw last week in my Holiday Home Tour that we just got some new living room furniture. Well, we have this little table that now looks so sad next to all of the furniture. It was already painted a grey, but the grey was a little too greeny/browny and just didn’t look too good next to the fancy new stuff. I mean, it wasn’t terrible, but it just bugged me, ya know?
The top was getting a little marked up too from a few years of holding drinks and snacks.
The great thing about this project is that I didn’t have to go out and buy a whole bunch of paint. The little tester sized jars are the perfect size for a little project like this. In fact, I actually had a lot leftover when I was done. The jars look like this:
The colours I chose for the table were Masard Stone (the darker grey) and Veil (the lighter grey).
You’ll notice that the Mansard Stone looks pretty similar to the colour that was on there before. And it is, except it’s much more of a true medium grey than a muddy one, and in the bright daylight, it really looks so much better than the old colour with the new furniture.
I started out by painting two coats of the darker grey over the whole table using a disposable foam brush. That took about 10 minutes. The paint dried so quickly and so smoothly and really made this a true “nap time project”.
After that I grabbed some painter’s tape and taped off some wide stripes. I just eye-balled it, which made Chris nervous, but obviously it turned out to be pretty fabulous. So that means I was right and he was wrong if you’re keeping score. 🙂
Dancing Santa was on hand for entertainment in case Jack woke up early from his nap. He shakes his butt to the tune of “I like to move it, move it” and says “I’m going to shake it like a bowl full of jelly!” It’s one of the best things ever.
But anyway, once everything was all taped up, I used my special trick for creating perfect stripes, like I did in Kennedy’s room and then applied 2 coats of the Veil over the top of the table.
Here’s how it turned out!
Kind of amazing, right?
Well, actually this is amazing:
No really, that colour red on the jar is called Amazing. When I was picking my colours, I could neither resist the punny nature of this colour nor it’s perfect Christmassyness. I was standing next to the dining table with my red plates on it when I saw the colour in my paint chip deck and it matched perfectly so I had to add it in somehow.
I just swirled a bit of it inside this mason jar, let it dry upside down on some paper towels overnight and I had myself a happy glossy red jar!
I love its retro look with the white berries in it.
They kind of remind me of bubbles! …which is not Christmassy at all, but still, somehow it works!
The table and the jar are the perfect easy little additions to this room’s Christmas decor and I’m so glad CIL gave me the excuse to play around and do this little project!
Do you have a little painting project that you’d love to do to spruce your home up a bit before Christmas? Why not just grab a tester or two, turn on the Christmas tunes, and have some fun with it?
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.