Painting tools are cool

Before we moved into our house 3 years ago, the previous owner planned on two-tone painting the whole place. She never finished painting the upstairs after our offer was accepted (and I don't blame her!). So, all of our bedrooms upstairs look very shabby with 10-year old eggshell-finish paint. I'm no fan of eggshell; I prefer the shinier, more washable "semi-gloss" finish.

About a month ago, my mother-in-law helped me paint the nursery. We painted it a neutral tan-ish color so it would work for either gender. It turned out very well, but seems rather boring to me now that I have color in other bedrooms. Someday when there's a baby in that room, I'll put up some gender-specific curtains and it'll make the room much cuter. I don't have a "before" picture, but here's the nursery. (We painted the wall with the window, and the wall to the right of the window.)

Then, this week, I began painting the other rooms upstairs. We went with the "only-paint-one-wall"-thing. We're a fan of color splash. The rest of the walls really need to be painted white again, but I'll have to leave that for another time. The vaulted ceilings make it a very daunting task...

Here's before & after pics of the guest room. Jared essentially picked out the peach-ish color, and I think it turned out really well! Nice and bright (although the picture doesn't do it justice).

And, here are before & after of the Master bedroom. I think the color makes the room look a million times better. Now, the window treatments stand out. Jared thinks it looks a little "girly," but he's okay with it. After all, he is married to a girl.

Lastly, I had to put in a picture of my two new favorite painting tools. The white thing in the picture is a paint liner for the paint tray. (This means you don't have to clean out the paint tray, and the liners are only 60 cents at Home Depot!). The red thing is a Paint Edger. (This means you don't have tape all the walls and windows!). I'm all about making my life easier. I'm sure my ancestors would scoff at the idea of spending an extra $2.50 for painting supplies, but hey! Time is money, and saving 4 hours of taping/cleaning is worth $2.50 to me!