S/O Kitchen Disasters-Household Disasters

[clio917]

We also spent a lot of time picking out paint colors. We chose complementary colors for the living and dining rooms: pale sand, almost white, on top, and then on the bottom, a warm brown in the dining room and a muted darkish blue on the bottom.

Pale sand: Pink. Or pale lavender. We couldn't really tell. It was one of those things where it looked different from different angles. Like a hologram. Only not fun.

Muted darkish blue: Superman. Recycling bins. Gym class mesh jerseys. The most violent, unaesthetic royal blue that you can think of. That was it.

Warm brown: Maroon.

We had spent our paint budget, so we just had to make do. We did both rooms in the pink/maroon combo. It was not horrible; in fact, a lot of people specifically commented that they liked it. But it was absolutely not what we wanted, and our couch was blue. If you ever get Glidden paint, ask for samples actually painted out; don't rely on the chips in the store. Ugh.

We have a similar problem... But every paint color we bring into our house ends up turning into green. Tan/cream paint = light green, dark brownish gold paint = brownish green, light brown carpet = green. We have pretty much given up and decorated the majority of our rooms in brown, tan and green. I want to paint our master bedroom, but I'm afraid what kind of green that our choice of orangey tan will turn into.

[siamesecat2965]

My ex-father-in-law had his own interior decorating business.  One day,  he came home with a strip of wallpaper.  "This is what I put in a lady's house today," he said, "what do you think?"  The wallpaper was very pretty - a white background with little bunches of pink and blue flowers.  Thing is, he was holding the strip so that the stems of the flower bunches were pointing upwards.  We said "It's nice, but aren't you holding it upside down?"   He looked dismayed and said "Oh, NO!"

Hehehe - this reminds me of something my mother did.  Their first house, which was built probably in the 1940's or 50's - had maroon and gray tile in the one teeny bathroom. the kind of tile that goes halfway up the wall, all around, and is one color, with the other as an accent.  My mother search high and low for wallpaper to watch, and finally found some. Which was in the same color scheme, with foil, in a bamboo-like print (this was 1969 or 70).  She is so proud of herself for finding it, and putting it up herself. As I said, it was a small bathroom, so not a lot of paper to put up. 

After its all said and done, she kept looking at it, thinking it looked funny. Over a period of months. Finally one day, she realized, the bamboo was pointing upside down. Yes, she had put up the wallpaper upside down.

[norrina]

When I was repainting my house, I wanted pale colors on the walls because the rooms were so small that dark/bright colors would be overwhelming. All of the "stock" colors were too concentrated though. So when I found a tone that I liked I bought an extra quart of untinted base, poured the gallon of color into a 2 gallon bucket, and added base until I had the shade that I actually wanted. The only problem was I had to be absolutely positive I had mixed up enough color for the room before I started, because if I ran out halfway through there was no way I was going to match the color again.

[lilfox]

We have a similar problem... But every paint color we bring into our house ends up turning into green. Tan/cream paint = light green, dark brownish gold paint = brownish green, light brown carpet = green. We have pretty much given up and decorated the majority of our rooms in brown, tan and green. I want to paint our master bedroom, but I'm afraid what kind of green that our choice of orangey tan will turn into.

You may have already tried this, but would changing out the type/color of light bulbs that you use help reduce the "green" effect?  We accidentally discovered, when replacing burned out bulbs, that different brands or even same brands and different effects produce a pretty wide spectrum of "white" light, from blue-ish tinted to pure to yellowy.  And that's before you get to incandescents vs CFLs vs LEDs...

Along those lines - DH and I finally decided on an exterior house color to replace the allegedly beige default color.  We chose a pretty spring green with (I thought) yellow undertones.  However, when it was done, the color came off as a vivid mint (blue undertones), which is not at all what we had in mind.  I held up the paint card and it was an exact match in all light/shade conditions - the card color was great, the house color ... took some getting used to.

So sometimes those paint cards might not be a match, but even when they are the color effect could still be quite different when it's on a really big surface.  This also explains why our upstairs bathroom is peach instead of sand.

[tiff019]

We have a similar problem... But every paint color we bring into our house ends up turning into green. Tan/cream paint = light green, dark brownish gold paint = brownish green, light brown carpet = green. We have pretty much given up and decorated the majority of our rooms in brown, tan and green. I want to paint our master bedroom, but I'm afraid what kind of green that our choice of orangey tan will turn into.

You may have already tried this, but would changing out the type/color of light bulbs that you use help reduce the "green" effect?  We accidentally discovered, when replacing burned out bulbs, that different brands or even same brands and different effects produce a pretty wide spectrum of "white" light, from blue-ish tinted to pure to yellowy.  And that's before you get to incandescents vs CFLs vs LEDs...

Along those lines - DH and I finally decided on an exterior house color to replace the allegedly beige default color.  We chose a pretty spring green with (I thought) yellow undertones.  However, when it was done, the color came off as a vivid mint (blue undertones), which is not at all what we had in mind.  I held up the paint card and it was an exact match in all light/shade conditions - the card color was great, the house color ... took some getting used to.

So sometimes those paint cards might not be a match, but even when they are the color effect could still be quite different when it's on a really big surface.  This also explains why our upstairs bathroom is peach instead of sand.

This exact same thing happened to us in our living room. Nice soft green (actually the exact shade my mom has in her bedroom - where it looks awesome) looked like an easter egg!! It took 3 paint colors to find the right one for that room. I think the room itself shrunk a little based on the 5 coats of paint it got that weekend! haha

[mmswm]

We have a similar problem... But every paint color we bring into our house ends up turning into green. Tan/cream paint = light green, dark brownish gold paint = brownish green, light brown carpet = green. We have pretty much given up and decorated the majority of our rooms in brown, tan and green. I want to paint our master bedroom, but I'm afraid what kind of green that our choice of orangey tan will turn into.

You may have already tried this, but would changing out the type/color of light bulbs that you use help reduce the "green" effect?  We accidentally discovered, when replacing burned out bulbs, that different brands or even same brands and different effects produce a pretty wide spectrum of "white" light, from blue-ish tinted to pure to yellowy.  And that's before you get to incandescents vs CFLs vs LEDs...

Along those lines - DH and I finally decided on an exterior house color to replace the allegedly beige default color.  We chose a pretty spring green with (I thought) yellow undertones.  However, when it was done, the color came off as a vivid mint (blue undertones), which is not at all what we had in mind.  I held up the paint card and it was an exact match in all light/shade conditions - the card color was great, the house color ... took some getting used to.

So sometimes those paint cards might not be a match, but even when they are the color effect could still be quite different when it's on a really big surface. This also explains why our upstairs bathroom is peach instead of sand.

A couple of days ago I got into a little bit of trouble with my father for "wasting paint".  We were in the middle of painting the underside of the carport and he ran off to deal with an emergency at another rental.  During this downtime, I grabbed the sprayer and painted a fairly large chunk of the side of house, then finished with the carport.  He came back while I was cleaning up, and got irritated that I'd painted the chunk of the side.  Well, lo and behold, when we came back the next morning, he took one look at the larger "sample" and decided he hated the color.  We finished the soffits in the color we had and ran out to get a slightly darker shade of bluish-grey.  The original color just looked to white.  The end result with the teal blue trim, white soffits and grey-blue walls looks fantastic.

[hermanne]

DH bought a wall TV mount and spray-painted it white. He did it in our gravel driveway and it turned out nice. But he didn't factor in the gentle breeze that blew white enamel paint mist onto my maroon colored truck.

[Julian]

At least there was a kaboom!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8rYotiiFP8

I love Marvin!   

[Piratelvr1121]

In my baby book is a note scrawled on a piece of notepaper: "Warning, house is boobytrapped in peanut butter and jelly."

Apparently when I was very little my mother made the mistake of falling asleep after giving me a pb & j sandwich and woke up to it smeared on the walls.

[artk2002]

We have a similar problem... But every paint color we bring into our house ends up turning into green. Tan/cream paint = light green, dark brownish gold paint = brownish green, light brown carpet = green. We have pretty much given up and decorated the majority of our rooms in brown, tan and green. I want to paint our master bedroom, but I'm afraid what kind of green that our choice of orangey tan will turn into.

You may have already tried this, but would changing out the type/color of light bulbs that you use help reduce the "green" effect?  We accidentally discovered, when replacing burned out bulbs, that different brands or even same brands and different effects produce a pretty wide spectrum of "white" light, from blue-ish tinted to pure to yellowy.  And that's before you get to incandescents vs CFLs vs LEDs...

Along those lines - DH and I finally decided on an exterior house color to replace the allegedly beige default color.  We chose a pretty spring green with (I thought) yellow undertones.  However, when it was done, the color came off as a vivid mint (blue undertones), which is not at all what we had in mind.  I held up the paint card and it was an exact match in all light/shade conditions - the card color was great, the house color ... took some getting used to.

So sometimes those paint cards might not be a match, but even when they are the color effect could still be quite different when it's on a really big surface.  This also explains why our upstairs bathroom is peach instead of sand.

This exact same thing happened to us in our living room. Nice soft green (actually the exact shade my mom has in her bedroom - where it looks awesome) looked like an easter egg!! It took 3 paint colors to find the right one for that room. I think the room itself shrunk a little based on the 5 coats of paint it got that weekend! haha

As well as ambient light and other colors in the room changing the color of paint, it's important to make sure that you do the right job with an undercoat or enough coats of the color to truly cover what was underneath. It's amazing what can come through.

[snowfire]

Hint: If you are doing a severe color change, make your first coat a good primer which is tinted to match your final paint. 

[Snooks]

Our living room looks almost lilac in some lights.  It's supposed to be beige/brown.  It looks like the half wall under the window in the hallway is painted in a much darker shade than all the other walls but it's just because it doesn't get any light.  I hate decorating.

[lilfox]

On the plus side, in my previous house I used differing ambient light to create a really cool effect in my bathroom.  I chose two shades of teal (lighter and darker) and painted two walls with one and two walls with the other.  Then I painted large circles (bubbles!) with the darker color on the lighter wall, and lighter color on the darker wall.  Because of the large window and where the light was mounted, the end effect was many different related shades of blue, which gave it more depth and interest (imo).

I'm guessing the first thing the new owners did was paint over it.   

[greencat]

• My ex did the hand-dish-soap-in-the-dishwasher thing - twice.  The first time I thought the dishwasher had malfunctioned, as I'd actually never seen anyone do that before.  The house my ex was living in (the first of the two events happened when he stayed over weekends before actually moving in with me) had a dishwasher.   I knew the second time what had happened because I knew that there wasn't any dishwasher soap in the house - because my ex had picked up the hand-washing kind when I put "Dishwasher soap" on the grocery list, I thought by accident.
• A different ex "helped" me with a major plumbing fix - except that he decided to wrench the pipe out of round in order to remove the old part.  It took three times as long to put in the new part because I had to remove some additional drywall in order to access the pipe far enough past the damage part to cut and replace it properly.  Incidentally, the leak that prompted the plumbing fix caused the drywall in my kitchen ceiling to buckle and let loose of the light fixture, which apparently had been screwed into the drywall instead of into a stud. 
• My upstairs toilet tank apparently developed an invisible hairline fracture when I was trying to separate it from the bowl in order to replace the seal between the tank and the bowl.  I didn't notice this fracture - which basically leaked water down the back wall - until my kitchen ceiling started to show signs of water damage.  Then I got to fill my toilet tank with food coloring to identify where the leak was coming from.  I had to replace the entire toilet tank.
• Same ex from the dishwasher thing - had a bad habit of piling his used plates from a couple meals/snacks eaten in front of his computer and setting them down in the sink.  He would stack them complete with utensils and paper napkins in between - a whole lot of paper napkins, not just one or two.  They'd sit in the sink, and get wet, and the napkins would at least partially end up dissolving down the drain.  This actually ended up creating a paper mache plug in my sink drain, which caused the drain to backup and overflow and ruin everything in the cabinet.  I think I may have thrown a stack of paper plates at him after repairing that one...
• A friend came to help tile my house - except that he was, perhaps, not the brightest bulb on the tree (based on many other interactions with him), and he kept stepping on the freshly laid sections of tile.  I ended up asking him to do another task - out in the backyard, where there was no tile to be stepped on.
• Deciding to go with an over-the-stove microwave was a minor disaster.  I bought the microwave I wanted, and then the standard cabinet to support it, and then discovered during the remodel...the soffit around my kitchen ceiling is so big (and stupid, and there to hide pipes, and therefore not removable) that it plus the standard-sized cabinet meant that I didn't have enough clearance over the stove.  I had to build a suitably-sized cabinet over the stove completely from scratch in a fairly large hurry.  Needless to say, the doors do not match the rest of the cabinets in style.

 

[nutraxfornerves]

This dates to the 1970s. A friend bought a new water bed. He got it home, but didn't have a way to fill it with water. We figured out that his kitchen faucet would take a standard garden hose. I lived in an old house converted to apartments and my landlady had a collection of garden hoses stored in the basement. So I figured I could borrow one for a few hours.

I showed up. We connected the hose to the kitchen faucet and to the water bed. The hose wandered through the living room & down a hall. My friend, in the bedroom, calls out to me in the kitchen that he's ready and turn on the water.

An immediate shriek of a number of colorful obscentiies.

Honestly, I didn't know that I had brought a sprinkler hose. Imagine this in your apartment.