Last Monday another idea struck me: to paint just one wall of my bedroom. The walls are basic white at the moment, and there’s nothing on any of them — no art, no shelves, nothing. One wall has two big windows that let in a fair amount of light; one wall is taken up by a closet with mirrored sliding doors. The bed, piano, and dresser are all up against the third wall, and the wall opposite has nothing. NOTHING. It’s a huge wall, it has no personality and this has everything to do with my being far less than a novice at this whole decorating/design thing. It’s so overwhelming: there’s so much that could be done, but where do I start narrowing it down? And how do I narrow it down quickly, because when I want to do something it has to be done immediately?1
Painting addresses most of these issues: it’s not going to be super cheap2, but painting one wall won’t require a lot of paint and it won’t take that long. It satisfies my need to do something myself and my desire to do something new (I’ve been a volunteer at other people’s painting parties but I’ve never painted my own apartment). It has the potential to inspire other design ideas for the room.
And as soon as I knew I wanted to paint this wall, I knew I wanted to paint it red. Not tomato- or Netflix-red, but a slightly purply, slightly brown kind of red. A few notches shy of burgundy, let’s say. A deep, rich red.
About a year ago (well, really, up to about three months ago) if I’d had this idea I would’ve talked about it a lot but never done anything and would’ve come up with any number of excuses for not following through. No more! That wall is getting painted! I went to the hardware store on Saturday and picked up a few color cards. A couple on the brownish side, a couple on the purplish side. The minute I put them up I knew which one I wanted.
I know red is one of the hardest colors to convey via computer monitors. Here, 3 and 4 look almost exactly the same to me, when in reality 4 (“Pomegranate”) is a little more orange, more terracotta, than 3 (“Red Contrast”), which is the most tomato-y one of the bunch.
5 (“Red Rock”) I like, but it’s a little too brown. 1 (“Deep Crimson”) is just too dark.
And that leaves 2 — and honestly, with a name like “Scarlet Past,” there really wasn’t ever a question.
I can’t tell you how excited I am to start. As a test of my patience, I do have to wait for a couple weeks because next weekend I’ll be out of town, but I can at least get the paint and supplies ready for when I return.
I know I’m going to need a little over a gallon in order to paint the three coats of this shade that the paint guy said I would need. I know I’m not going to use a primer, or possibly I would use a lighter color red for a primer, based on what I’ve read about painting white walls red (this is apparently the trickiest color to paint one’s walls. Well, it wouldn’t be me if it were easy). I know I need tape and a drop cloth and a roller with some sort of extendy thingy because even on a step ladder I probably wouldn’t be able to reach the ceiling. My question to you: what else do I need? What tips should I know?
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