Nursery: 1 Daddy to Be: 0

Fun, Pictures, Shea

Well Bridget and I have been getting ready for the baby.  One of the projects that I have been working on the last few weekends is painting the nursery.  We decided on a Gingham pattern, with larger green stripes and smaller yellow stripes, matching the colors for our bedding.

So I painted the entire room with bright white paint, because we needed this for the base and to cover up the scuffed up “builder’s grade” paint that was sprayed onto the dry wall.  We used some very high end expensive paint from Sherwin Williams from their “Green Sure” Duration Home Interior Latex paint line. We figured that the low VOC paint is a healthier and more environmentally friendly choice to make.

I noticed that when taking the tape off that some of the paint came off as well, but I touched up those spots and moved on to taping without thinking much about it.

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The taping took a long time, since there were 9″ green stripes and 1″ yellow stripes all over each wall.  Once I got that done, I painted the green with a mixture of the Duration paint and a faux finish latex, and used to sponge to get the right looking texture.

Here’s what it looked like with the vertical stripes done before getting to the horizontal stripes:

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Well after getting it all painted, we discovered that the colors were slightly off.  The yellow was too bright and vibrant, and the green was more lime green in color, unlike the more sage green in the bedding.  I was taking a nap after a day of painting when Bridget woke me up and said “Honey, I think we may have painted the wrong color”.  I didn’t want to admit it at first, but after a day of looking at it I realized she was right.

We decided to paint it all over again, this time just painting all of the walls the same color, the yellow that better matches our Honey Bee pattern.  Pretty much the same color yellow as on the walls here, and again with a faux finish:

So then we will also need to use a primer first on the walls to cover up the green.  But I remember how easily the paint pealed off of the wall before, so I went up to see if this would work.  To my surprise, all of the paint came off very, very easily… just came off like contact paper that wasn’t very sticky anymore.  Glad we found out now, as this paint would have never held up for very long, and we would have been trying to touch up spots constantly.  More importantly it would have been a health hazard, since the baby would have been able to peal it off and eat it very easily.

So even though we would have loved to use to more environmentally friendly “green” paint, it just isn’t up to the task, as you can see here:

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Update: Well mom took the peeled off paint back to Sherwin Williams, and they said that they had never seen anything like that happen before.  They are going to give us a full refund on the price of the paint, since it didn’t perform as it should have.  We are very thankful for them to take care of it for us.

6 comments… add one
  • Vanessa Jul 26, 2008 Link Reply

    I can not belive that! What a mess!!! Way to go Maureen in getting back the price of the paint. I was just looking at that type of paint and now I know not to get it. What a mess, but cleanup sound slike it was nto too bad. Let me know if you need any help!

  • Mom and Don Jul 27, 2008 Link Reply

    Don wants to know about the labor. Did they ‘reimburse’ you for the time spent painting? I loved the strips….shame it wasn’t the correct color.
    Love, Mom

  • Chris Kelleher Jul 27, 2008 Link Reply

    Hi Vanessa,

    Yes, it was a mess and a lot of time wasted! Yeah, it was nice of mom to take the peeled paint back and get our money back… they didn’t hassle her about it at all, they were very nice about refunding all of the money, even for the supplies that we bought.

    We found another no-VOC paint that also has no Carcinogen ingredients. The Duration paint has crystalline silica which has been found to cause cancer.

    The paint is called Mythic, you can see them here at http://www.mythicpaint.com and they have a dealer in center city at Greenable http://www.greenable.org/

    This paint is wonderful, no smell at all, and it has performed very, very well so far. I’m going to blog about it when I am finished painting again!

  • Chris Kelleher Jul 27, 2008 Link Reply

    Hi Mom,

    No, they don’t cover the labor, so the time I spent painting was wasted… I was a little upset about that, but I’m happier with the new paint (Mythic) that we are using now, and I think a solid light yellow color that matches the bedding will look better and be more soothing.