Ketchup and Mustard

I've been wanting to paint our kitchen for a long time now, but it just never reached critical importance for us. That is, until this past week when I decided I was tired of off white walls in the kitchen. I knew Justin would appreciate a change too, so I started planning to secretly paint the kitchen while he was at work and surprise him when he came home the next morning.

I conspired with my friends Kim, Raven and Mo about a week ago. All I had to do was prep the room for paint and they would help. (Well, Mo stood around and watched, but I can't fault the pregnant chick.) Prepping a room for paint in a house as old as ours isn't as simple as washing the walls. I had to wash the walls of course, but I also had to spackle and sand many cracks, holes, and chipped paint.

Anyway, the big snowstorm threw a small wrench in my plans in that I wasn't able to go to Home Depot to buy the paint until yesterday evening, shortly before the girls were planning on coming. Now keep in mind that this was all supposed to be a secret from Justin. So I had to have another reason to go out. I told Justin I wanted to go to Target to get some things for Deuce's birthday. Could I have picked two places that were any farther apart? Because I was just supposed to be at Target, I had to make my HD stop as quick as possible. Unfortunately, the man behind the paint counter was in the mood to give a lesson on red paint. Plus he talked me into buying an extra gallon of grey primer, which was $20 on top of the $66 I was already spending on paint. Meh. So, as I'm hauling butt (I think that sounds ridiculous. You know what I really want to say.) to Target, Justin calls me to inform me that I forgot the Target gift card and debit card. Since I just spent nearly all of my cash at HD, I had no choice but to come home, acting like I was really upset about "wasting time at Target."

So, as soon as Justin walked out the door, I quickly started getting the room ready: I took stuff off the wall, moved furniture and appliances and started taping. The two colors I chose for the kitchen are Ruby Ring and Campground by Behr. My plan was to do one wall in a deep red and the other 3 in a tannish color. We primed the soon-to-be red wall. And then went to work on the other 3 walls, edging and painting it what was supposed to be taupe-ish.

Actually, it was more like spicy brown mustard. It also resembles a breastfed newborn's poop (after the meconium stage) minus the seeds haha. And now, come to think of it, I'm pretty sure my first car (a 1980 Toyota Celica hatchback) was this color. "Campground" my butt. However, as someone who likes mustard, breastfeeding and the memories of my first car, I can tolerate the color.

When we finally got to the red wall, it was past midnight. And what a disappointment it was to know that the paint was not going to cover in one coat. So, I would have to wait 24 hours and do another coat (or more) myself. I ended up waking up this morning at 5am (less than 3 hours after I went to bed) to do the 2nd coat of mustard, I mean Campground before Justin got home. I also did some tape removal and clean up.

Justin walked in the door, and into the kitchen, and I said, "surprise!" He responded with a big smile. He was definitely surprised! And happy that I took the initiative to finally paint our really boring kitchen. He doesn't love the baby poop tan either, but like me, can tolerate it. Just about any color is better than white or off-white, I think.

I hear that red walls make people eat more. My walls look like ketchup and mustard. I wonder how my diet is going to go now? Psh. ;0)