Peripatetic Designer: Animal House

Before you have to look at the mess Floor Monster created, here is a shot of a tub of Picket Fence White, (Ms. SpoolTeacher's favorite white of choice these days.) Paint Monster is getting ready to have some fun.

Floor Monster started ripping up flooring almost as soon as Ms. SpoolTeacher moved in to her 1945, "custom built" little dwelling. The Real Estate agent was also the owner, and she had scooped this little wreck up at a super bargain and then proceeded to "fix" it with everything bargain basement as well.

Ms. Stevie Weevie and all her siblings started "ripping" things up as well.

There is no doubt that behind the vacuum cleaner, close to the camera holder's feet, there is a ball. That was Stevie's thing.(You can read about her wonderful life by clicking her name, she was the best ball-doggy ever, we miss her terribly)

The thing to notice here is the flooring. As you can see, "Floor Monster" has been wrecking his havoc all over, leaving Ms. SpoolTeacher many messes to challenge her super budget creativity.

When you love animals, live in Arizona where grass is impossible, dirt is staple, and your house was built in 1945; carpet must be pulled out. There is no hope for it's survival.
Carpet harbors all kinds of unwelcome, and uninvited guests.

Stevie, Little Red-haired Girl, Orphan Annie, Bobcat and Ms. SpoolTeacher ran uncontrollably with dirty/muddy feet from gardening, digging ball holes, just traversing the property for all things needed, etc. to the point that carpet just ends up looking like so much, now only "good-for-weed-control", regurgitated (off-the-Home Depot- roll carpet), popcorn-Berber. Out, out, out of this house.

Thank you Floor Monster. That was a good job you did. Now, what to do with that, disgusting, off-the-Home Depot-carousel roll-cheapest-easy-to-tear-when-you-move-the-refridgerator-out-to-paint, %$@#! sheet vinyl. Floor Monster thought Ms. SpoolTeacher could use it for a base to paint on? No. Hey, good idea, Floor Monster. You're starting to show signs of usefulness.

Along with many other projects Paint Monster has started and not finished is this purple round. It was used for the top for display on the fabric sample book rack at Accessory to Design - Interiors, when Ms. SpoolTeacher thought there might be a market for her "wisdom" on all things window covering and she opened a shop on Huachuca Street.

Then Paint Monster finally coerced Lilly (who doesn't paint) to stand by watching while s/he added a layer of a soft gray to the purple so it would blend in better with the decor, so far...

Now, about that floor...hmmm...hmmm

Okay, let's start with a high adhesive primer for the base..

Then mix up all those left over buckets of paint so you'll have enough and cover everything that doesn't have something sitting on it...(Ms. SpoolTeacher is big on doing the heavy lifting..."later"...)

What a yucky color..oh, well. There is an idea Spooling around in her head for a "plaid" treatment she saw done with asphalt tiles years ago in a model home that she has been sitting on all this time, hoping for a reason to pull it out of her bag of tricks...Well! Finally. Finally...the time is near...

The next thing is to mark off the grid. She decides she likes the large tile size and uses one of the many sample tiles she has brought home to look at as a template. "Pencil, please."

She did this treatment once before, only it was a faux "marble" effect in, what other than...Purple...It was kind a cool. But now for that plaid she has been sitting on so long. It had been done so beautifully. Looked just like plaid but was those old fashioned, harder than rock, never wear out, asphalt tiles. She wishes she could do it that way, but her super budget creativity must suffice...

Paint Monster loves to "cut in". So Ms. SpoolTeacher lets him/her at it...S/he's real good at it too. No masking tape was used except for that stubborn, "Yellow Brick Road" yellow color. For some reason it wanted to bleed. It was thin and needed several coats.

Everything became intuitive at this point. The placement of colors, the colors themselves. She mixed colors she had with each other to make a related scheme.

"Where's a good example of plaid?", she asks... "I'll go drag out one of my fabric sample books!", she is getting very excited..
Now for all the colors. She starts the spool in her head intuiting...this, that, that and this, and that and that too...

She did create a pattern, but it evolved as she decided which colors seemed to pair off in a pleasing way. She would mix some of the red with the yellow and get an orange and place it next to each of the related colors. And so on, and so on..

Orphan Annie is sneaking a peak. She'd really like to leave a "signature", but she was too timid. She's still a little feral. Never has come completely out of the bushes she was found in in a parking lot and brought screaming home in a cardboard box; but she's happy to be part of the fam.

Still one square of that awful, yucky, muck muck color. "I know!" Ms. SpoolTeacher exclaims.."I'll clean the whole thing up with "Picket Fence White", her favorite new shade of white.

That's it. That's the ticket.

Joe Joe picks his favorite color. He thinks it makes him look good in the environment. He's learning from Ms. SpoolTeacher.

She liked the idea of this beautiful yellow remnant, but it eventually got used for another spool of thought...she'll show you later...

This vintage tiled carousel was an impulse buy. She can't believe how her colors follow her wherever she goes.

It's starting to make sense.

And that table round that started out as the display top for the fabric sample rack, evolved to be useful as the sign for the Lollipops & Polka Dots Variety Store.
It's home now with her waiting for it's next best use.