Update......

I have finished painting... finally.  One stained dining room table, six distressed dining room chairs, four distressed counter stools, one distressed prep center, one distressed buffet, two cubbies, two bathrooms, three bedrooms, four rooms with textured walls and new paint...and VOILA!  ....it's all finished.  Well, not quite "VOILA!"  ...that makes it sound so simple....so...instant.  And believe me, it was anything but.

There were some bumps along the way....
take for instance staining the table....  if you've read my previous posts, you know the pain and agony of that venture....

the chairs and counter stools were completed without much ado...well, actually, there was the one chair I painted first and then decided the color was too bright, so I tried sanding the paint off and stripping it off and .....  well, ok...there was some "ado" there....

Sarah's bedroom was painted in one Saturday and I'm pleased with the outcome...

the bathroom came together nicely...more on that later tho..

next, I put texture on the living room/dining room/kitchen...I've told you about that as well.  I'm happy with the way those walls look...especially late in the day when the golden evening sun shines through the blinds and highlights the texture, making the walls come alive and become reminiscent of the french country farmhouse walls that I love....

the master bedroom and bath had their trials...  and yes, I posted about that too...

the prep center was next....I went about distressing it totally differently than the dining room chairs....I had read that you could paint the piece, sand the edges, and then gel stain the sanded parts to make it look distressed...as opposed to painting one color, painting another color over that, and then sanding the top color down to show the color underneath - which is what I did with the chairs.  I was diggin' the way the prep center looked.... then I put sealer on it and it made it look slightly darker than I intended...don't know what happened there...but, still, I liked it.  Notice that like is past tense.  Well, I just painted the buffet ...only I didn't distress it quite so much...didn't add as much gel stain to the edges and shook the gel stain more and even stirred it... :)  Thing is...now I like the second piece better than the first, so I kinda want to redo the first piece.  My husband has threatened to throw it out the door.  Ok...maybe I'll wait on that...but you know it's just sitting there...looking at me...irking me because I want it to look different.  Maybe I'll just get over it.

when I painted the boys' room, I had in mind what I wanted.  I had seen it online...stripes on the walls.  If you knew how well I draw a straight line on paper, this decision would trouble you....deeply.  But, nonetheless, I decided to go for it.  :D  Their bedspreads are light grey and dark grey with yellow-orange, white, and dark blue rings.  Soooo...I decided to paint their two cubbies that Darren built, dark grey, paint the walls light grey, and put a yellow-orange stripe, and a dark blue stripe around the walls.  Painting the walls went well...I was excited to start on the stripes.  I enlisted the help of my kids...got out the measuring tape and chalk line and went to work.  This was my first time "playing" with a chalk line...I could really get in to that  LOL....  anyway, I marked up however many inches and penciled it off and then put masking tape on it.  Then, I measured up another inch and a half and put tape on again.  I painted the first stripe and decided to see how it looked before painting the rest of the walls.  When I lifted up the tape, I was dismayed to see that the paint had seeped under the tape and caused the edges to look feathered.  Determined to not let that happen again, I went around the wall and pressed down on the masking tape with a ruler so it would not allow any paint seepage.  I measured up another inch and put one more piece of masking tape and again, pressed it tightly to the wall.  After painting a couple of coats of yellow orange paint and blue paint for the stripes, I was sooo excited to rip the tape off and see how it looked.  When I started pulling the tape up, I was amazed!!  Oh, how crisp the lines were!!!  And straight!!!  I was sooo proud.  And I pulled some more...reveling in my work.  About that time, I pulled and OH DEAR HEAVENS!!!!  A big ole piece of grey paint came up with the tape!!!!  NOOOOOOOO!!!!  The stripes were perfect, but the tape was so lovingly hugging the wall, that it obstinately refused to let go!! The tape was pulling up paint...and not just grey paint, but every layer of paint that had been on the wall....all the way down to the chalky stuff...whatever that is.  I was crestfallen.  I touched it up with grey paint, but the areas in question were dips in the wall.   The only happy moment was when I realized that by the time the bunk beds, cubbies, and bookshelf were put back in the bedroom...and one strategically placed paper stuffed lightening bug, there were no noticeable errors. Still..... I know they are there...  but the boys love their stripes and yeah...I like the stripes too.... I'll post a pic later...

this week, I started on the den.  It had been a deep blue...and I loved it.  But, it needed some texture.  :)  Soo....I spent a couple of days texturing the walls...and then picked out my paint.  The very cool thing about the color of paint is that when you walk from the kitchen into the den, the color change seems seamless.  The kitchen is that really light, faint yellowish color and the den is a light "cappuccino with creamer" color :)  When standing in the den, you can tell it's brown...when standing in the kitchen, you can tell it's faint yellow...but when walking from one to the other, the color change is barely noticeable.  I don't know if you can get a visual on that, but it's very cool.  :)  Anyway, when I started painting, I was using a 1 1/2" brush...at first, I only was going to paint a small portion of a wall just to see how the color would look.  A bit later, I realize I've painted the entire corner.  Good thing I liked the color, huh??  :D  Well, since the 1 1/2" brush was already "dirty", I just decided to keep painting with it.  I painted two walls with that brush ....  I don't know...maybe I was sentimental thinking it was my last room...maybe the fumes were getting to me...but I never did switch over to a roller....I did eventually go to a 3" brush.  There was a bittersweetness to the whole affair...  no more feeling the sweet, smooth handle of the brush gliding around the trim - causing my shoulder and back muscles to scream in agony at the constant stretching...  no more sniffing the familiar fumes of addictive latex paint...no more the splattering of texture and color from my head to my toes....no more hopping up and down on a stool - pulling my hamstrings so tight you could pluck 'em like a banjo string....  yes, there is some emotion attached to the painting of your last room....I have played taps for my favorite brushes....  I have lain them to rest.  But you know, I was thinking.....I sure wish I would painted the bathroom a lighter color......    ;)