D.I.WHYYY and 50 Shades of White
This isn’t a proper post. More of a teaser for what’s to come.
Today I spent about nine hours painting non-stop. 12 hours if you count running around town getting supplies. Why? Because the painter I hired to paint my new apartment completely stood me up. (Note to self, don’t hire random skilled tradespeople off Kijiji.) It’s okay, luckily I hadn’t paid him in advance.
Anyway. After over an hour of waiting around and leaving him passive-aggressive voicemails, I figured if I wanted my apartment painted, I was going to have to do it myself. Luckily I was able to enlist two family members at the last minute, and the three of us set to work.
Now, I had no delusions about painting. There was no part of me that thought, “hey, this is going to be fun and easy!”. No. I know this stuff is hard work. Which is why I wanted to hire a professional to do it for me.
What I didn’t expect was to be so utterly exhausted by it that I can barely muster the muscular strength to type up this post.
Let me back up.
The first step was picking a paint color. Easy. I knew I wanted white. I headed over to Benjamin Moore’s website and discovered that “white” was a far broader term than I realized.
Yeah, not so easy. This is what comes up as the selection of whites. There are cool-toned whites, warmer whites, whites that look different in different lighting, stark whites, cozy whites, etc. etc. etc.
I spent the better part of a weekend obsessively comparing shades and googling pictures of homes using one shade or another on their walls. I figured if I was going to throw so much time, money, and effort into the project just to change the color of my walls, I’d better be damn sure I’d like the result.
I boiled down the vast array of options to just a few top contenders:
Benjamin Moore – Decorators White (CC-20)
Benjamin Moore – Oxford White (CC-30)
Benjamin Moore – Chantilly Lace (OC-65)
Benjamin Moore – Simply White (OC-117)
Benjamin Moore – White Dove (OC-17)
In case they all look identical to you, here they are side by side in the same order.
Interestingly… none of them are actually pure white. I don’t understand why that is. They’re all just about the brightest whites the brand offers – and all of them look like true whites once they’re on the wall. Eyes are funny things, aren’t they?
After much deliberation, I went with Simply White. I liked that it was bright but still just a teensy bit warm.
I ended up buying the Benjamin Moore Natura paint, which is exorbitantly priced but contains zero VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Basically, chemicals that release into the air as you paint. So, good to avoid.
My experience with it was amazing. It’s creamy, covers incredibly well, and doesn’t smell at all. I’m prone to headaches from fumes and I wasn’t affected, nor was my mum, who is even more acutely sensitive to perfumes and scents.
I promise I’m going to show you actual before and after shots of the painted apartment, as well as a few process snaps that I took.
But for now, this girl needs to go horizontal. Every muscle in my body is aching. Who knew home decor could be such a workout?
Back to work painting bright and early tomorrow! xx
