Mrs. Blandings: Execution*

With all projects there is a kind of "Big Bang Theory." Everything sort of explodes before it comes back together. I pushed everything to the center of the room and painted, moving the ladder strategically through the two foot border I had created around the perimeter. I tried Benjamin Moore Aura for the first time with great results. It covered the yellow, which should have been named Acid Trip, in two coats.

I taped off a red border around the ceiling to give a little more structure. It's horrible to paint with red, by the way. It took at least four coats to give a solid stripe and it might have been five. I'm quite impatient and more than three coats makes me grouchy.

Once that was finished I made a few samples to scale to decide how close the dots and starbursts should be. Then I measured it out with a yardstick and marked the pattern with pencil.

I did the dots first with a black paint marker. For me, I have to save the best for last or I abandon the whole thing. If I'd started with starbursts I might not have finished the dots. The rubber stamp worked great and survived to stamp again.

I'm not going to be glib. It took a long time. Though low-skill, as all of my projects are, it was often tedious. And the pattern of the dots did make my eyes cross now and again. Also, for the record, the boys did not help in the least.

But I had fun. This is the kind of thing I want to do. I just told a friend the other day that the thought of playing tennis or bridge makes me want to hurt myself. I'd be eternally happy painting one room after the next, but fear my family would commit me.

I picked up the vintage goose decoys at Suzanne Cooper's. Mr. Blandings thought I might reconsider and let him take them to the Duck Club; I did not.

I replaced a reproduction pine hanging shelf with these shelves from West Elm. Cleaner, lighter, fresher, better in every way.

Of course, I didn't hang them, I just stood and directed. This is where Mr. Blandings's enthusiasm for my projects begins to wane.

This housed the built-in ironing board. The rectangle to the left is metal and folds down as an iron rest. When we had the rooms painted I wanted to take these out and fill in the opening but the painter somehow talked me out of it. I can't even remember the explanation of why it wouldn't work but in hindsight it was stuff and nonsense and a mistake. We mounted L brackets here to create more book storage which has proved handy.

I ordered incredibly inexpensive white cotton curtains from Pottery Barn and added a black grosgrain ribbon. I used hemming tape because I can't sew. Frankly, sewing would probably be just as easy.

The issue, of course, was never the blue and red, but rather the green and red. The white of the wall cuts it enough that I do think it escapes looking like a Christmas display. The room could use a little grounding and I wanted to paint the floor black. (Please don't tell Mr. Blandings; he might come undone.) But in an email exchange with frequent commenter Toby Worthington about the curtains he suggested painting the baseboards a dark grey. A better solution, especially as he reminded me that a black floor would show every speck of dust.