An Imaginarium Project

There was this strange little cubby up in the Imaginarium, almost like a mini closet with no door.




I had an idea for something I wanted to do with it - I wanted to put little shelves in it, and use it for storing some of my stuff. With Greg's help, I devised a plan of using small pieces of wood for shelf supports, then just laying the shelves across those.

He cut all the pieces for me, and I set about screwing them into the wall - the walls are plaster, and nailing anything in is an excercise in futility, so we settled on this as the best way to go.





It worked great, though I'll tell you, those supports wouldn't come out without ripping the wall apart. They aren't going anywhere.

Then I stained the shelves ...



Then I painted the inside of the cubby, and a bit of angst set in. I'd decided on what I hoped was a lightish shade of purple, and I bought a whole gallon of it, knowing I'd want to use it in other places. But when I painted the cubby, it was a bit too dark.

I didn't want to take it back to the store to have it lightened, because I'd only have basically one shot to get it right. They'd show it to me in the can, I'd have to guess whether that was a good shade or not (something that never works well for me), bring it home, and if it still wasn't right, I'd be stuck.

I'd read online that the easiest way to lighten dark paint was to just buy white, and add the dark to it until you get a shade you like. I thought, that actually sounds like a better idea ... I could use the white and some canning jars I have to mix up various shades from this one gallon of purple and have a lot of options for my Imaginarium decor. So I started one batch, testing colors on a scrap piece of lumber until I got one I liked.

Then, instead of just repainting the entire cubby, I 'pounced' the lighter color on. Kind of like sponge painting, except since I'd forgotten to pick up a sponge anywhere, I just used a rag (but didn't 'roll' it - just pounced it).

It turned out absolutely fantastic. I couldn't be happier with it. These pictures don't quite do the colors or patterning justice, but they're the best I could get. The patterning is really awesome because the colors blend so well, it's very subtle, almost like suede or something. Just really cool.






One thing I'm especially pleased with is how, at the edge on one side, I blended the pouncing into solid color, just because I wanted a more finished look, and didn't want the pouncing all the way to the corner edge.



So yeah, I'm pretty happy with this. I'm planning to install a rod and hang a curtain in front of it, in part to keep out dust, but I haven't gotten to that part yet, and I'm still enjoying admiring my painting job.

The Imaginarium is very drab, color-wise ... off-white walls, olive-ish green carpet, dark brown wood trim and cabinets. I plan to drastically change that over time, and this project is the first step in that direction ... it's now a tiny little color oasis in a sea of drab, but it's inspired me as to how great the whole area is going to look once I get some of my other ideas completed. Well, with it getting into winter now, I plan to spend a lot of time working on this in the coming months.