Painting the Breakfast Room

There are no pictures for this post because I thought they might be too disturbing for the web.

The new wood flooring won't be here for a few days, so we figured now would be a good time to repaint the kitchen and breakfast room. In the past we had a red dining room and we really liked it. The color was called Drumbeat, a nice red that was a pleasant contrast to our pine dining table and other light-colored furniture at the time (now our dining room is all dark oak). We couldn't find Drumbeat at Home Depot so we settled on a rusty red color featured in a brochure there. I think it is called Rusty Red.

I washed and prepped the walls, which is no small task because of the rough, swirling surface that the previous owners applied, probably trying to mimic the trowelled surface on the exterior of the house. The texture has absolutely no aesthetic value. It is good only for capturing dust and sucking up paint. I worked quickly, intent on getting a coat on the wall in time to see the new vampire series that started on HBO last night.

I got the paint ready and poured it into the white, plastic tray. Something inside me reacted. On my first pass at the wall the roller was too saturated with paint and a few long, rolling drops of rusty red streamed down, in and out of the textured crevices of the wall. I stopped for a second and watched. It looked sort of disturbing and familiar. We didn't get the flat paint--instead it has a slick shine (and it is still shining this morning). I needed to see a bigger area, so I moved quickly and the wall was soon bathed in ribbons of red.

Cheryl was working on her school work at the dining room table so I called her in to take a look. We just stood there for a second. "Looks like a scene from Dexter, doesn't it?" I said. She was not amused.