The Little Things

As I finish up the Great Trim Painting Project of 2013, I have to admit very few share my obsession. Painting trim is tedious and back breaking but I find it strangely meditative. I also find it very rewarding. But why? Most people point out—correctly—that I’m painting it the exact same color it was. Yes, but it was a mess—and the kind of mess you don’t notice until you’re right on top if it with a paint brush in your hand. Once you’ve reached that level of awareness, there’s no going back. You’ll notice every mark, every stain, and every peel.

Here’s our pantry door. It’s a little worse for wear and you see a few chips in the paint.

Up close it’s worse. The paint is chipped, the area surrounding the doorknob is stained, the hip along the panel is dirty, and the old backplate was replaced with a smaller one leaving a mark (guilty on that one.) I should point out that this is all after I gave it a good wash. This paint is so old it’s simply uncleanable.

Here’s the door after I painted it. It’s still an old door that’s seen better days but a fresh coat of paint perks it up.

The final piece of the puzzle was the back door. It was battleship grey, most likely so that the outside of it would match the foundation siding and the front porch. But the grey exterior meant that the inside was grey as well. We don’t have many photos of it—why would we—but you can see it here that it’s depressingly, institutionally grey. (Fortunately, Wyatt has a peanut butter jar to keep his spirits up.)

I gave it three coats of white paint and now it disappears into the rest of the kitchen.

And isn’t that the point? We may be noticing how nice the trim looks this week but the overall goal is to be able to walk past a door without thinking that I need to scrub it down. I’ll enjoy the newness of it all while it lasts and I look forward to the time when I simply think how clean everything looks.