Husband of the Year

There is a lot to update you on so more posts coming but I can't wait on this one. Derrick is the best. I already knew this and you already knew this but he seriously amazing and treats me so well! I was out of town Monday through Wednesday this week and while I was away Derrick surprised me by painting the dining room! I freaked out!

This is a really big gesture and so sweet coming from him because it's really pretty out of his comfort zone. I handle most of the home improvement projects and it's just not something that he has a lot of experience with or a big desire to do. This is why this is so doubly sweet and amazing. He also had to pick the color and he nailed it!

Two weeks ago I went and bought some paint samples. I was ready to get the brown off the dining room walls and I wanted to lighten it up a bit. At first I was thinking light and bright mint. These were my first three samples. In my opinion the left was darker then wanted, I loved the middle, and the left was too blue. The problem with the middle was it didn't contrast enough with the molding.

I went back and forth and then painted three gray samples on the wall. Two were left over from painting the exterior of our house and one was a new sample from Lowes. Lowes just dropped the price of their samples down to $0.99 so you really can't go wrong to test it out first!

Then I left town and forgot about it for a while. That's when Derrick took over and blew my mind with excitement. He picked the color, Rocky Bluffs by Valspar, and took care of business. Here is what the dining room looked like before. It was fine but I'm just not into the brown in this house. There is so much of it with the floors and the cabinets already. Since we've painted the office, the island, and now the dining room, we've finally gotten rid of all of the brown except for the foyer!

Here is what it looks like now! Derrick had one coat done when I got home yesterday and I finished the 2nd coat and the caulking this morning.

Better right?? Obviously the room is still a mess but I was too excited to get this post up to care about that. Derrick seriously knocked it out of the park with the color choice! Now I'm staring that light fixture down though. It's on it's way out for something much less basic-builder looking.

While I was at it I went ahead and cleaned up the edges with some caulk. Derrick taped the whole room off which is way more work than I usually do. I usually just free hand around the trim and hope for the best but he took the time and effort to tape. There were still some edges to clean up though.

I tried just free-handing the caulk and it didn't look good. It smeared up a lot and needed to be re-painted again.

So I tried another technique I'd seen before. I taped off the trim leaving a tiny gap between the trim and the tape in order to get a nice clean line. Then I caulked and smeared it with a wet finger and peeled the tape up right away.

It looks awesome and is definitely worth the extra effort of caulking.

Derrick really got me with this surprise and I am so grateful for such a thoughtful husband. He knows my love language is home improvement!