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Talking to my grandpa about his old house made me rethink my whole approach | Atlanta Homeowners - Vivisector

Talking to my grandpa about his old house made me rethink my whole approach

He was visiting last week and saw me stressing over paint colors for the living room. He just laughed and said he painted his first house with leftover barn paint from a neighbor and it held up for 20 years. Made me realize I’ve been overthinking stuff like matching trim and fancy brands. Anyone else ever get a reality check from an older relative about home projects?

3 comments

3 Comments

fiona_kim973mo ago

My last place had a bathroom that looked like a crime scene because I spent 3 hours picking the wrong shade of blue. My dad came over, handed me a brush, and said "It's paint, not surgery. You can slap another coat on tomorrow if you hate it." He was right. I painted that bathroom three more times over two years and never once regretted experimenting. Now I buy the cheap stuff from the hardware store's discount rack and if it looks bad I just paint over it next weekend. The key is not treating your walls like they are a museum piece. Your grandpa had the right idea with barn paint.

adam_baker3mo ago

Yeah, I gotta push back a little on the discount rack thing. Cheap paint is cheap paint. It doesn't cover well, so you end up needing three coats instead of one. By the time you buy extra paint and spend all that extra time you're not really saving anything. Plus some of that stuff is so thin it splatters everywhere and takes forever to dry. I've definitely been burned by a five dollar can that looked fine in the store but turned into a chalky, streaky nightmare on the wall. There's a middle ground where you don't spend three hours deciding but you also don't grab the stuff that's basically tinted water. A mid range paint from a brand that's been around forever usually does the trick without breaking the bank or making you hate yourself.

amyh123mo ago

Fiona, how many times did you have to repaint that bathroom before you actually liked it? Because I've got a spare bedroom that's on its fourth color now and I'm starting to wonder if I'm just a hopeless overthinker or if some rooms are cursed. The "cheap paint slap it on" approach sounds great until you're staring at that one spot where the old color keeps bleeding through and you realize you've created a monster.