The Former Traveling Spotlight

The tales of a "30" something gay former stand-up comic living in NYC who is searching for his soul mate or soul...which ever comes first.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Seeing Green

Since I've moved into my apartment, I've really done nothing to make it my home. I have no furniture, and up until 6 weeks ago, I didn't even have a bed. My apartment was basically my shoebox that I used as shelter from the cold...which oddly enough wasn't that good as the landlord shuts the heat off daily.

This year I decided to make some changes. I want my place to be more a home and less a prison cell, so I decided I'd take some steps. When I signed my lease in December, I decided I'd do one thing a month to make the place more like a place I'd want to be.

My thing for January was to paint the entrance hallway. This 10 foot long and 31 inches wide area was the easiest starting point. And paint is the cheapest change you can do to your home.


I arrived at the paint store with a particular shade in mind. I wanted chartreuse, which would go well with the wood flooring and the wooden closet doors, as well as the frames of two prints I have framed in the hallway. However paint stores don't name their chips chartreuse. They name their chips Green Grape, and Pear Green. What the hell...it took me nearly 30 minutes to pick out a paint chip that I liked.

I took the chip to the counter and asked the guy to mix me a can of paint with the chip number 2028-10. He mixed the recipe, and sold me a gallon. $54.95 was the cheapest paint he had. That's more than I paid for my chair! But I bought the can, along with a brush, roller, and roller tray.

Getting home, I opened my can (the paint can that is) and proceeded to paint the hallway. The green seemed a bit bright, but most paint is lighter when it's wet. As it dried...it just got more intense. To the point where something didn't seem right. I compared the wall to my paint chip.

The paint store mixed the paint incorrectly, and I now have lime green walls.






I'm sensing a can of white paint for my February job.

Patrick - 1:59 PM -

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