I’m Ready for my Touchup, Mr. DeMille

Our House

Over the weekend, Mr Shingleton happily installed his new toy, the Nest thermostat. In fact, I have zero doubt that right at this very moment, wherever in OKC he may be, he is gleefully adjusting our thermostat from his iPhone or iPad.  However, once it was all installed, the new round thermostat was sitting in a lovely beige rectangle: the old paint color in our now aqua living room. Uh oh. It didn’t take 5 minutes for that to drive me absolutely bananas.

Which meant it was the perfect time to do this little project I had been planning for awhile. Last summer when E&C redid their house, I noticed a lovely shelf of mason jars holding varying shades of paint in their utility room. Chrysi told me that she makes small jars of every paint used in their house so she can grab them as needed for touchups. Genius, no? So a few weeks ago, I grabbed a bunch of cute little jars at Hobby Lobby for this very purpose as it was one of those things in the back of my mind that I wanted to do.

The fact is, it’s never fun to go out in the garage and grab those yucky old cans of leftover paint for jobs that only take a few minutes. They’re always messy and bulky. And frankly, I’m bad at follow-through, so I need something to be quick, easy, and accessible.  I’m also noticing lately that we have lots of little scuffs here and there that need to be fixed. I have zero idea how these things happen, but I think it has something to do with toys flying down the stairs. Or wrestling boys.

I brought all the paint into the kitchen and got to pouring. Much of the paint is a few years old and was in varying states of yucky. Be sure to mix up the paint really well. You want all of that pigment to get properly blended. I used an old spatula to really get the job done and scrape down the sides when need be.

The end result is the perfect little jar of paint, just right for touch-ups. I personally didn’t find it necessary to label these beyond the room that they’re in. If you’re pickier, you might want to include the name or formula, although since I have all these cans out in the garage I already have those on the original paint cans.

Now I have a lovely selection of paints all stored away in the laundry room, ready for action. I already put the living room version to use and I’m thinking about all the scuffs on the stairway walls that I’m going to attack too.  Oh, and the always-fabulous washi tape made for the perfect write-on labels.

Voila! This project fit the bill for me: attractive, easy to store, and easy to use on a regular basis. 

with love,
Rachel

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