The Next Decorating Dilemma

I spent all of last week on my big decorating project and painting my basement. I was hoping that this week, I would be posting some beautiful pictures to show you all how hard I worked and how even I, a total decorating dummy, can make my house look beautiful.

Not so much.

Actually, my basement looks great. Just not great enough for the blog pic because my piece de resistance looks like a piece of crap. I made a huge boo-boo on my wall. I had this grand vision for a stencil design, and totally flubbed it. So I am instead posting a pic of my boo-boo.

I did so good, I measured and taped perfectly. Applied the paint. Waited for it to dry, and then I took off the stencil. And three layers of paint, including primer. Even though the instructions said to wait for it to dry (I thought my mistake was not letting it dry long enough), my friend Kaci, who is an expert at such things, said that you don't let it dry, you take it right off.

So live and learn. Don't follow directions, just ask the expert. :)

Now I have to fill in the part of the wall I broke up, find a way to re-texture, re-paint, and start all over.

Some day, my friends, you will see my beautiful basement.

The takeaway lesson is that sometimes, when you overextend your abilities, you end up with a crappy result. Fortunately, you can learn from your mistakes and hopefully *fingers crossed* get it right the next time. Just don't be afraid to try.