A work in progress

I love home improvement projects. Well...atleast I love them once they are completed. I love the way they make me feel about my home. Once we've done one project, it makes me want to keep at it and do more. This house is full of projects that could be completed. Usually, we average about one project a year. Oh, ok, maybe a few more than that. The current project is a complete overhaul of the boys' playroom. It is a tremendous job that we have been putting off, for a number of reasons. Reason numero uno: As you can see in the picture below, we had two faux cubbies that were really quite useless because there were no doors. We have tossed around several ideas for these cubbies for the last 3 years, but finally came to the realization that we would probably never get around to actually doing what was necessary to make the space behind them usable. I then intended to repaint the trim bright white, and use magnetic chalkboard paint on the center. But, instead, Paul just took them off and put up new drywall.
Another reason I have been putting off sprucing up this room is the shear amount of work needed to make it perfect. I like perfection. I realize it can seldom be attained, but when I know perfection is unlikely, then I'd prefer to not even attempt the task (for example, trying to be nice...unachievable, so why try??). It's an issue I have. The previous owners of our home trashed this place. We have now painted every room in our house minus our bathroom and the playroom. Each room has presented a significant challenge because the previous owners did something to the walls that causes new paint to run and peel off. For reals. With as much experience as I've now had with this issue, I've developed a technique for dealing with it, but it takes a lot of time. And because of this issue, the contractors who painted it last left the walls with pools and drips that dried, making the walls so far from perfection that I'll certainly never be satisfied. SOOO, in order for it to look the way I'd like for it to look (perfect), I would have to sand every square inch of wall space, which is just impractical. It also creates ALOT of dust, requiring all toys to be removed from the playroom....another reason for procrastinating this job.
But alas, I have so many ideas of how I want that room to look that I finally decided it was time to take the plunge. So, toys have now invaded every room upstairs. Toys are in Sam's room...
...in the hallway...
...and in my room.
We are going to make a cute little reading nook with white shelving, and I thought yellow paint would be a perfect color to accent the white shelving, plus go with the other colors we already have in the room. So, after bringing home several paint chips to compare, I chose a color and bought two gallons of Calabash yellow. Holy yellow preschool room! Welcome to the Highlight Zone! When you turn out the lights, the wall glows (not really, but sorta). This will NOT work! Not exactly what I had envisioned in my head. But, I have already bought two gallons of this neon paint, so I tried to convince myself it would be ok. It would certainly not be ok. Back to the drawing board. We had 3/4 of a gallon of blue paint left from painting the boys' bathroom, so I decided to give that a go.

And we have a winner. I love it. Today while out shopping, I found lots of really cute accessories (a really cute rug and throw pillows) with the same shade of blue and the same shade of green as our couch. It was meant to be; someone out there must have been in need of two gallons of yellow paint that they couldn't afford to buy for themselves and now all they have to do is ask me for it.