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No, I couldn't contain myself and wait. The second bedroom didn't get painted, the kitchen only got undercoated and half a first coat of paint, and the lounge didn't even get washed let alone painted, but the ceiling in the master bedroom is now a different colour!
I toddled off to Bunnings first chance I got (quoting the excuse that I had to buy more undercoat/primer anyway), and couldn't resist requesting some Alley Cat for the ceiling while I was at it. This was a bit of a risky move, because Bunnings don't carry Solver paint, so they would be attempting to mix the same colour (which is actually a Bristol colour) with a different brand of paint (British Paints). Have I got enough brands in the mix there do you think? Therefore, I was expecting a bit of variation between my Solver Alley Cat painted cardboard at home and what I was planning to bring home in a tin to actually slap onto the ceiling. I figured I could live with a bit of variation though, although it was adding an element of surprise to a decision I'd already agonised over - perhaps not the best idea. Anything for the instant gratification of a coloured ceiling TODAY (well, yesterday), right?
Actually not exactly instant, because when I cleaned the ceiling (which is a mind-numbingly awful task), I realised that it was exhibiting the very early stages of the disease that is afflicting the ceiling in the second bedroom, seen here (and below).
Little baby hairline cracks were showing over the majority of the master bedroom ceiling, most of which hadn't grown into anything alarming yet. It must have been a reeeeeeeeeeally long time since these ceilings were last painted,w hich I suppose is not surprising. This poor house is really begging for a bit of love.
So, scared that if I started slapping my Alley Cat straight on it would only flake off again in a couple of years, I whipped out my newly purchased industrial strength (well not really, but it says it's pretty amazing on the label) sealer/primer/undercoat from Bunnings that claims to be able to stick to gloss enamel paint without first sanding, and gave the ceiling an extremely thorough coating. I suppose if I was being diligent I should have whipped out the sander with some tough grit sandpaper and given it a thrice-over (although that would have had to wait for another day when it wasn't Sunday - damn noise curfew) and another wash so I could be absolutely certain that no paint would flake off.
But even I am not willing to torture myself that much. So I settled for a full-on undercoat, and hoped for the best. Even exercising the necessary patience to undercoat rather than get straight to painting the colour was hard enough, alright?
A word of warning. If painting a ceiling, I highly recommend some kind of protective head covering. This is what happened to me:
Meanwhile, Daniel undercoated the rest of the kitchen. It looks so much better now (even with a fairly thin undercoat) than with the patchy VJs exposed!
The view towards the dining room. Isn't that yellow just icky in comparison with the white? Eugh.
And then.... drumroll.... I finally got to start painting the colour on the ceiling!!! It's funny how it's almost impossible to tell if you like a colour from close range. I painted the entire ceiling with the first coat before I actually got a chance to look at it and decide if I like it. It looked VERY different from my sample in person. Much browner and darker. Which scared me.
Don't worry about the strange wavy line towards the bottom of the above pic, that's just a wet join that hadn't dried yet.
I also painted it on the ceiling of the bay window. The difference in light there really changed the depth of the colour.
The jury was still out for me when I started on the second coat later. You can't see it in the pics, but the first coat was a bit patchy, and I was still a little bit freaked out about how different the colour was from my Alley Cat Solver sample. Can I also say that painting VJs in a dark colour is one of the most frustratingly tiresome things I've ever had to do? Getting every little scrap of white in the gaps between the boards painted is so hard!!!!! I imagine it's also just as annoying going the other way - dark to light. Let's hope I want to keep the colour!
I didn't finish the second coat until well into the night, so all the 'complete' photos are taken by the light of a lamp. Perhaps not such a bad thing, since it sure makes it seem cozy with all that warm light reflecting up! And very brown!
I then painted the rest of the bay window alcove. I'm not absolutely certain that it was the right move to also paint the window seat itself, but since it's likely to be obscured by our bed anyway, it probably won't matter if I don't totally love it.
Here's the view from what has become my favourite spot, lying on my back (which it reeeeeeally needed after hours tilting my head backwards standing up on a scaffold)!
And after all of that, I really won't be disappointed if I never have to hold a paintbrush again. Fat chance of that!
So what's your verdict? Love it? Hate it? Couldn't care less?
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