The Real Truth

I am going to spoil the ending....things did not work out as I planned...

We are in the midst of photographing for our new book with FiFi O'neill. It's an interiors book filled with designs, which is highly exciting!! It's a mixture of high/low design and two of my own houses...

I hesitate to say houses, as my abodes are more like creative, but lovely, shacks...this particular pad is my cottage on Lake Erie, where my family and I summer....It is everything to us, but it's also small and rustic...

By rustic I mean it has one (old) bathroom and four cottage style bedrooms....translation, it's basically an attic with four bedrooms and a 3/4 wall...

It's fun but I don't invite anyone who doesn't have survival skills and an casual attitude...We are shooting this house because it's charming, it's also a summer home and currently closed for the winter....in fact, it snowed when we got into town, and, because the stairs basically washed away in the last storm, we had to move a gas meter....this means, no heat and a lot of coordinating to get the gas company, plumber and carpenter on board for repair...

While that's happening, we had planned to put the bedrooms back together. I just had the house painted, so it seemed like a breeze...the story was to going to be a weekend makeover piece: a few tricks you can do to vamp up your space and still be able to go out for a lovely dinner....we had high hopes...

In reality what happened was, realizing in the freezing cold there is literally no where to put stuff while attempting to paint the floors. this is where the pro tip/cheat comes in...We, and this means ME, carefully moved all the goods to one side of the room...

In the picture, it looks more like I threw them, which may be closer to the truth...I then carefully (not really) cleaned the floor and lightly sanded some spots...

At this point, I went around the edges with a brush and used a roller on the field...If you have painted floors, you know that the best part is that touch up is relatively easy, and keeps your floor looking great before the next big redo. This method is more a quick total redo without the proper protocol or patience...it also helps if you plan to put a rug down...

To be honest, painting under the bed is probably not the best example of your work...that said, this method allowed me to fully finish 4 bedrooms in 2 days AND watch The Bee Gees documentary...It's not perfect, I completely understand those who think it's madness, I really do...I, however, am on a deadline and have real clients who deserve the better part of me...this is my crazy form of self care, and in the end (did I mention to use the best quality satin paint possible?), it looks great, and I honestly did an "OK, I can live with myself" job...

TOOLS NEEDED:

*WINE

*chip brushes

*blue tape (if you lack a steady hand and/or are drinking wine)

*high quality water based porch and floor paint

*rags

*music

*did I say wine?

*A guy named Jonny, who did all the other stuff, like hook up the new stove,

install shelves etc...

Hmmm, we knew the floors were crooked....does this look straight to you Jonny?? Time for a shim and 2x4....

In the end, we did this thing in a weekend and we are still talking, so maybe it's not a blog...? Not sure of the rules...