A Fresh Coat of Paint

Who knew a fresh coat of paint could be so satisfying?


Because I am a recovering perfectionist, I have never taken on a paint project by myself from beginning to end. My unwillingness to paint was simply that it is not the kind of thing you can get perfect. Since that's not possible, I didn't want to start. Crazy and obsessive I know, but there you go. Prior to this, I have been willing to surround myself with ugly colors just so I didn't make a mistake. Crazy, I know.

In keeping with my type-A tendencies, I have done quite a bit to mitigate major mistakes. I researched online how to paint interior walls. I purchased all new tools. I did it tiny step by tiny step. I have tried to do it completely and thoroughly each step of the way.

The toffee crunch that adorns my walls now looks stunning. It is so much better than the dark and dinged-up sage green that was there before. Why the heck didn't I do this earlier? I'm a big, fat, type-A chicken, that's why. (And it has a little bit to do with clinging to the excuse that painting with small children in the house is a recipe for disaster.)

The fresh paint is bright, new and clean. It is also slightly imperfect. The edges and corners are rough. If you look closely you can see the patch repairs I did in some places. Mya helped me one day and I didn't get to her drips quite fast enough in some places. If you get down on your hands and knees behind our dining room table you will see several dried drips ridges.

If you cared, that is. And, I'm happy to say that I don't much care about the ridges myself. What I'm realizing is that the imperfections don't matter one bit. The pride I am feeling in learning a new skill and the brightness I have brought to our home far outweighs any anxiety I felt about imperfection.

I know that only other perfectionists might relate to this post, but I would hazard a guess that almost everyone allows fear of failure to stop them in their lives.

Courage is not the absence of fear. It is feeling the fear and doing it anyway. Imagine ... afraid of toffee crunch? Look out halls, covered wagon and chocolate turtle are next.