I created a couple of simple linear multi-tonal brown canvases years ago. It worked well in my first building and I’ve used them at the next two apartments. I wanted to switch it up a bit for my new house — I wanted to had a bit of color and some three dimensionality as well. I got some new paints and started to dabble with colors and techniques. It couldn’t get it to look like I wanted. I basically wanted a thick slathering of paint in abstract sweeps. Didn’t turn out that way. So I put the canvases in the closet waiting for a future project.

I found a project on YHL that I really liked and that I think would look pretty cool in my guest room. I decided to pop down to Home Depot today to get some sample paints (which would be enough to do the entire art project). The first thing I needed to do was to cover the brown and primary colors with a crisp clean white — need to start fresh. So I picked out my three colors (blue/greens) and asked for a pure bold white to use as my primer, if you will. The home depot guy gave me my four paint testers (3 blue/green and 1 white) and I head home, full of excitement. I figured by the end of the night I could have both canvases painted white, allowing them to try until tomorrow when I could start the second part of the project.

I start painting and it looks like shit. The pure white paint is going on like a bad white wash. I add another coat and it looks slightly better. Well, come to find out, the Home Depot guy gave me a base tint and not pure white paint. The tester only cost $2.94 plus tax, so it’s not about the money, it’s about the time, effort and then doing it all over again. I’m quite frustrated, but am still confident that this project will be a good thing for the guest room.

I’ll try to hit Home Depot again tomorrow and try this again. How frustrating, eh?

Oh, and I will be showing before and after photos for this project, but I don’t think I’ll show them until the final piece is done…

Wish me luck.