Yvette's Inner Geek Blog

Last weekend, Ben and I primed the finished portion of our basement that is the family room with the big TV. Like all areas of the house that we have not yet painted, it had shiny, textured beige walls and ceilings. Ick.

We finally decided that we would be brave and paint it red. Yes, a lovely red that's not too bright and not too dark... Behr has a color called "Cherry Cobbler" that we decided would be perfect. (Hurry up and buy it before we change our minds!!!)

So after spending a few evenings this last week touching up the (dark base) primer and painting the edges of the ceiling white (we'll finish that last because we have plans for ceiling lighting), yesterday we started coating the walls with red.

It was exhilarating, and because the room is fairly large, took some time. 3 CDs and a movie's worth of time, to be exact....

"I am Sam" movie soundtrack
The Barenaked Ladies' "Rock Spectacle"
Green Day's "Insomniac" album
and the first "Back to the Future" movie 

And after we finished, we noted how brilliant the room seemed, and how the light still reflected off the walls. The color is fantastic and I love it. But... a little more shiny than we were expecting.

In fact, just as shiny as the icky beige walls had been. WTF? Turns out that the beige walls were Satin enamel, just like the new Cherry Cobbler paint that we'd purchased. We never looked at the cans the previous homeowners left for us.

I don't mind the shiny red as much as the shiny beige, but the sheen is driving Ben to the brink of insanity. What to do? Should we suck it up and buy another can or two of Eggshell-sheen Cherry Cobbler? Would that work? Or should we just sell the house and move into a double-wide to avoid the hassles of being a privileged homeowner?

I see a red wall and I want to paint it black....