The Interior DIYer
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When paint colour and finish go wrong, and what I did about it

Last week I shared a picture of the new hue on our living room wall. The reason I gave you an out of focus sneak peek of it is because the paint was so ugly that I wanted to tear my eyes out. It was bad. I thought I had failed. And here is how I conquered said failure. 
These photos were taken on different days and under different lighting conditions, so please excuse some of them as they aren’t the best. 

I wanted to paint the wall behind our shelves a bold colour. I’ve always swooned over the deep maroon some of the deceptive dust covers I made 100 years ago, so I took some left over scrap pieces of the paper and taped them to the wall to give myself an idea of whether or not that colour would be too dark, and also to see if that hue would suit our room. 

I loved the colour and was excited to get painting so we headed out that evening I bought a 2.5L tub of B&Q’s forest fruit paint. In a silk emulsion finish. It wasn’t until the next morning that I realized how wildly unsuitable it was for our living space. You could see every brush stroke and it was so shiny you could almost see yourself in it. It made me feel pretty crap. 

I remembered a discussion my dad and I had about paint a couple of weeks previously. I wondered, if I mixed a little bit of plaster of paris into the paint, would it make it look like matt paint? 

I mixed a couple of teaspoons of  plaster of paris with water into a smooth paste then added it to a couple of cups of paint in my painting tray. Whatever you do, do not add the dry plaster of paris directly to your paint. It’ll end up like a badly made hot chocolate with lumps everywhere. 

At the same time, I wasn’t too keen on how purple the paint was. It was a cold purple and definitely wasn’t adding to the cosy vibe I was going for. Before I started mixing my paint in the tray with the plaster of paris, I cheekily squeezed a tube of cherry red acrylic paint into the tub [which was only about 1.5L after my 2 coats of paint on the wall the previous night] and mixed furiously. 

I painted a test patch to see how the new paint differed in both colour and sheen. And just like Charlie, this level of Sheen was winning. 

The above picture is a bit horrible, but you get the idea. I was excited. I had conquered the paint. I was in love with how it turned out and it only took one coat of paint to fix the problem. Please tell me I’m not the only one who’s had a paint disaster?

At the moment I don’t have photos of the entire wall without a Christmas tree stuck in the middle, but the colour is much better suited for our living room. A beautiful berry hue. That paint very nearly got the better of me. Nearly. xx A

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Sneak peek – new living room hue

When do you consider too early for Christmas decorations? I have a couple of exciting things lined up next week, one of which will require me to prematurely decorate for Christmas for a photo shoot [eeeek!] and I’m wondering if I should keep our decorations up for the season, or do it all over again in a couple of weeks? I know. First world problem.  

One thing I can give you a sneak peek of is our new living room hue. I’ve wanted to paint the wall behind our shelves a bold colour for a while so on Wednesday night I bit the bullet and bought some dark berry paint. However, the paint has a ‘silk’ effect so it’s shinier than I’d like and I can’t help but stink-eye it. I’ll be repainting it in the next couple of days [in time for a festive little feature! Eeep!] and once I’m happier with it I’ll take some better pictures. 

From rainy and pissy Dublin, I hope you have a happy Friday, homies, and enjoy the weekend ahead xx A
DIY

How to repair a very worn rug (and why flatwoven rugs suck)

Yes. The wildly shameful image above is our IKEA Stockholm rug. This is it, 18 months after we bought it. 

When I first brought our new rug home, it was heaven. It fit perfectly under our couch and coffee table, and gave a serious punch of black and white to the room. It really anchored the look of the space and I couldn’t have been more smitten. However, as the months went on, I realized exactly how difficult it was to keep. And I realized why.


The IKEA Stockholm rug is a flatwoven rug; meaning, it is tightly woven in a loop vs. regular low pile rugs that aren’t woven in a loop. Meaning, it ages quickly. 

The area between the coffee table and our couch got the most ware. This is where we would walk from our kitchen [to the left of the picture above] and cut across the living room to get to our dining area [on the right]. We also spent a lot of time here as this is where we watch TV, entertain guests and sometimes work.

Another reason why flatwoven rugs are a bad idea is cats. For anyone who doesn’t have a cat, I will explain that cats have a natural urge to sharpen their nails. As Toshi is demonstrating so gracefully below. I trim our cats nails regularly, so that minimized the damage that could have happened to the rug. Whenever they picked at the rug, it would pull at the flatwoven closed-loops and sometimes snag. Not cool.

It’s something that didn’t even occur to me when we bought the rug. But now I know. I’m in no way mad at our cats because it’s a natural urge of theirs. They can’t help it. So maybe if you have a cat and are on the lookout for a rug, you’ll know too. Learn from my mistake. Low or high pile rug = good. Flatwoven rug = bad.

Case in point – we have a black and white IKEA Virring rug which the cats also scratch, but because it’s a low pile rug, their nails sail through it like a breeze and it has zero damage.

So if you have a flatwoven rug that is damaged like some of my incredibly embarrassing photos above, do not fret. There is a way. And it is a breeze.

I first started to trim the rug with scissors. That was laborious and tedious. I quickly had a eureka moment and realized – why not just use husbands electric hair trimmer? So I plugged it in and it was like some form of wizardry …

Trim. Vacuum. Literally good as new. I was nearly in tears. It was perfect. No word of a lie. I will accept baked goods or folding money as a thank you. You’re welcome in advance. 

I should explain that my husband doesn’t use this hair trimmer so it was okay to use it. When I was finished, the trimmer wasn’t dirty and was in perfect working order for the next flatwoven mistake that comes our way. Or you know, for hair. 

Our rug turned out so neat, tidy and nearly new that I was in fact able to sell it. I wouldn’t have been able to sell it if it wasn’t to a high standard. It’s all part of my attempt to make our apartment less obviously IKEA and I already have my eye on a couple of second hand low pile rugs to replace it. These colder months really call for rugs. Neatly trimmed rugs.