After all the tedious paint scraping and pressure washing, it was finally time to get tackle something fun -- picking out paint colors! Little did I know, this would cause the most stress.
It all started on a good note. I went to Lowe's and got dozens of paint chip samples and pestered anyone in my path on color combinations. I will confess to finding inspiration for (read: stole) the colors from this project on the DIY network. It's tough to visualize stencil patterns in various colors!
I went with a light gray (Secret Passage, #D58-2) and a dark gray (Dover Gray, #D58-4) for the main pattern, with accents in orange (Field Poppy, #A24-6) and yellow (Golden Glow, #B12-3) all in Olympic Premium Exterior paint in satin. I hoped these would complement our bright blue door.
Anyone see the problem? Yes, instead of buying the 'Floor/Porch' paint, I bought regular Exterior paint, without thinking about it. Cue two days of stressing back and forth over whether it would be disastrous to use. Would it all flake off? Would it stand up to foot traffic? The issue was that the porch paint only came in gallon buckets (that I could find at the 4 stores I checked) and I only needed a quart of each color. Waste of paint and money?
I asked our friendly 'profesionals' at Glidden and Home Depot, but no one was sure (as a sidenote, the guy at Home Depot told me that it would look 'weird'. What does that even mean?!). After a stressful call to my dad, he convinced me that the paint would be fine, especially with the topcoat sealant I was planning to use. Sold!
The other unexpected problem was in finding stencil brushes. I opted not to buy the recommended 1" stencil brushes from the company that sold me the stencils, thinking I could just pick them up locally. Turns out, they don't sell stencil brushes, especially that large at Lowe's, Glidden Paint or the couple craft stores I visited. I finally found some 3/4" brushes at Home Depot, but I regret not buying them from the stencil store directly. Lesson learned!
Next up, the moment you've all been waiting for -- stenciling begins!
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