Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Progress with Paint!

The last two days have been spent prepping and painting our guest room.  I loved the wall color so much that I even went ahead and coated my freebie headboard with it.  That's only the first step in the headboard redo so stay tuned!

I used "Cloud" by Dunn Edwards for the walls and I love how airy the room feels. I didn't realize what a difference would be made by getting rid of the chocolate wall. It really feels SO much bigger.



 Don't mind the mess, I've still got some cleaning up to do.



An unintentional sneak peek into my hoarder's closet.  Yikes!

Because this is such a light tone, I went right ahead and did the ceiling in the very same paint as the walls.  Now the 8-foot ceilings feel much, much higher than before. I'm so happy with how this room is looking so far!

So, now that I've started making some REAL progress on one of my own home's projects, I thought I'd share a bit about how I finally started making some decisions and got this makeover underway.

I've probably said this before but I'll say it again - as a designer, making quick decisions for clients is about a thousand times easier than making them for yourself. When it came to my guest room, I found myself falling into the same black hole of paralyzing indecision where many clients often find themselves. The constant second-guessing of every tiny element of the design kept me from even starting. It was SO frustrating to feel that even though I had more than enough motivation, I couldn't seem to get out of my own way.

The funny part is that the more that I became frustrated by this room, the more my eye would wander to other areas of the house. 

"Well, maybe I'll just focus on my office/living room/master bedroom for a while and come back to the guest room".

Ha! As if the room was the issue.

As if the same indecision that plagued me in the guest room wouldn't rear its ugly head elsewhere.

Finally I found a remedy for this chronic stagnation. A remedy that has completely renewed my enthusiasm and given me the boost I needed to power through.

My humble remedy is hardly groundbreaking but it works! You ready for it?

Here it is:

Do something.

That's it!

All the planning, the list-making, the Pinning (!) in the world won't mean a thing until you actually do something.

Now, I am the first to admit that I'm a planning, organizing, list-making junkie.  While those activities are all well and good, if allowed to continue indefinitely they can easily turn into procrastination enablers. Making lists and spending hours on Pinterest in the hopes that I'd come across the exact image of what I wanted my room to look like was just a clever way for me to put off making any decisions.  I couldn't make a decision yet - I'm still planning! I fooled myself into thinking that because I was busy I was making progress. Two very different things.

I knew exactly what I wanted my guest room to look like all along. I was just afraid to commit. What if it didn't turn out like I envisioned?  Would it mean I wasn't a good designer?  Would it mean I had bad taste?


So much pressure!

Finally I set a deadline for painting the room and I told everyone about it. I even blogged about it, knowing that I would feel like a giant bonehead if I came back here today without some progress to report. You guys keep me accountable! :) 

I also told B I was starting on Monday when he had the day off, so he could help me clear out the room.  I knew that once I involved someone else, it would be much harder to let myself off the hook.

And whaddya know? My guest room is painted!  I am so excited to keep going and cross the finish line!

I know this "do something" advice may sound a little simplistic and it's not the most original idea in the world but for me it really worked. Doing one thing can be all you need to get the ball rolling on a project that has stalled before it's started.  For me, that one thing was painting.  To be completely honest, I wasn't 100% sure I would love this color but I wouldn't have known one way or the other until I tried.  Fortunately, I absolutely LOVE the color!

At some point, plans have to be put into action. Otherwise you've wasted a lot of your time and energy.

I really hope this isn't sounding like a big lecture. That's certainly not my intention. I just wanted to share some of my struggles with personal project procrastination and how I got over the hump.

If you've got your own ways of dealing with this, share them in the comments.  I'd love to hear how you all stay motivated when home improvement projects get stalled.

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