Thursday, February 9, 2012

Fresh Paint!

It's the time of year, as the cold penetrates our bones, where most families seek a warmer climate.  I know alot of friends have been lucky enough to spend some of January or February travelling to all sorts of beaches, the warm, scenic and southern ones.  While your family is travelling, are you ever worried about leaving your house vacant?  Do you hire someone to watch it, or do you have friends and family peek in on your place while you're gone.  What about your pets?  Boarding or placed with the grandparents?  But, I digress.  This is really about a surprise.  A room hi-jacking, if you will.  For about three years, I have been entangled with a wonderful family.  As an outside observer, I've watched as this family balances multiple sport schedules and family life with their generosity towards the needs of others.  They are huge supporters of causes, and especially breastcancer.ca, which has had the audacity to strike them close to home.  This, as you may be able to imagine, means nearly 23hrs of their day is devoted to others (and the obligatory function of work, of course), and I would be surprised if even that one hour left in the day, was a selfish one.  Long ago, they hatched a plan to re-paint their house, give it a fresh palette, a touch of their own flair.  And, over the course of a few years, they've talked alot about these dreams, especially in my ear, and with wistful sighs, how they would eventually get around to re-doing their own master suite into an oasis.  Eventually they got around to painting a few rooms here and there, the kids rooms, the family room, the hallways.  Each time a more important 'space' took precedence rather than their own.  Now, don't get me wrong, they did get started on preparing the master suite, years ago, by removing some 100 year old wallpaper, but it was only partially removed.  And, the last time I saw it, they were living in a style of wall paper shredded, blank wall bliss.!  So, when last October, they told me about a trip they had planned for Cuba, a whole week in January with the family; kids and grandparents, an evil plan was conceived.  A whole seven days to secretly transform their master suite that they'd been dreaming (talking) about for three years.!  For months I waited and waited for my moment to pounce, and when finally the week came, it was the worst week possible in the Rustic Benches studio.  The six-year old apprentice was sick, there were snow days, freezing rain days, cancelled school buses and a ton of orders to complete.  Before I knew it, four of the seven days were gone!  Finally the child got well enough to be in school, so I enlisted some help, and off we went to tackle the space. 



almost a blank canvas

The first day was dedicated to prepping; protecting furniture, getting everything out of the way, removing the shreds of wallpaper, taping, priming, vacuuming and planning colours. 

top color - cream
The next days were spent painting multiple coats, adding new light switch/plug covers and cleaning up.  By the time we were done, and even though it was a small space, it made a dramatic impact on the room.  And, just in time too, we finished with barely hours to spare until they landed. 

That evening, I went home, poured a glass of wine and waited to see if my phone would ring. 
bottom color - chocolate







And, ring it did!



:: Insight, RB Studio.

1 comment:

  1. Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you. What a wonderful surprise it was!!! Total shocker!! The kids were just as surprise and excited as we were. Our wonderful friends did an FANTASTIC job to transform our bedroom into a warm and cozy place that is difficult to leave to head to a cold arena!! But I must point out, these wonderful, although often sneaky, friends are friends no more!! Nope we now concider them FAMILY!!! We love everyone involved with the rustic bench business!! love SPEAK

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