Almost done...

While Jeff is off to the Home Depot to pick up one more quart of Grappa (from the Martha Stewart line- the only low-VOC paint Home Depot carries in the quart size, what's up with Freshaire not coming in quarts?? And why isn't everything now no-VOC now that they have the have the techmology? Is there a market out there for people that like to inhale volatile organic compounds?), I'm going to post his progress.

So I initially really disliked our orange sherbet dining room. Now I despise our Lakers themed orange and purple dining room. Thank god it's only until Tuesday! By the way Mom, I asked Jeff if the wallpaper color was puce and he scrunched up his face and said "Uh, it's purple." So I guess his $100,000 art education didn't stress color naming subtleties.

Jeff has mad painting skills. Not just fine art painting skills, but room painting skills. He did it semi-professionally when he was in San Jose so he learned some good pro-techniques. 

He taped off the white ceiling that we're keeping, and then cut in with the white paint to seal the tape and prevent the purple from seeping in. I wouldn't have known to do that. 

We (and I use this term loosely- Jeff did everything. I opened beers for him and made him snacks.) used a tinted primer as the first coat, which in retrospect should have been the first two coats, and then rolled on two coats of the Grappa which STILL wasn't enough. It's a super dark purple that will look like crap if it's not even and with full coverage so back to the paint store we go. But it's close!

Almost there... can you see why I hate this color combo? Ew. Just picture everything orange covered in that gorgeous wallpaper. 

We couldn't (and didn't want to) wallpaper the ceiling lip so it was either going to be white or purple. We went with the purple because we like that ceiling feature and want it to stand out, plus I like the idea of the ceiling closing in and enveloping the cozy dining room.

Here's what it's going to look like when it's done! I'm glad we didn't do a matchy-matchy purple paint. Too easy to be slightly off and thus totally wrong. It's hard to tell from here too but the white parts of the wallpaper aren't white at all. They're a sort of yellowish cream color- the EXACT color of my metal lawyers cabinets I found on craigslist when I lived in Costa Mesa! They're perfect for dining room storage. We had considered painting them (which would have been a huge pain in the ass) and were thrilled when we realized we didn't have to and shouldn't. Nice!!