Salamander
I have a bone to pick with Pinterest.
I’d argue that the amazing aspect of Pinterest is also the worst part: the notion that a certain aesthetic is easily attained. The reality is numerous beautiful pins are mind numbingly expensive (at least for us budget crunching Millennials). The first time I realized this was while I was planning my wedding. I naively sent an inspiration photo I found on Pinterest to my florist, she came back with a quote, I laughed and laughed and said I need to move the decimal point on that quote over to the left a few spaces to make it attainable.
Since then, I’ve always had a hate-love dynamic with Pinterest. 99% of its dreamy aesthetic is just out of my league while Mitchell’s in residency. So you could imagine how elated I was to actually bring an inspiration photo to fruition and do it successfully while being conscientious of costs.
I remember sharing the photo above in my Instagram story feed and commenting something along the lines of how I’ve included a spot for self-care in our monthly budget and how for that particular month, I spent it on a can of paint; however, one day, I hope I can treat myself to something like a manicure and pedicure and also buy a can of paint. I have big dreams, guys.
This pin is what I wanted to replicate. I had somehow managed to find this geometric rug on Wayfair and the hunt was on for the perfect can of green paint. We’re currently renting but our landlord is thankfully very easygoing about things like us painting the walls. So I knew from experiences painting nearly all the other rooms in our place that I really love Benjamin Moore paint. I settled on the shade Salamander by Benjamin Moore and it came out exactly the way I envisioned it.
As I’ve mentioned, we’ve repainted nearly all the other rooms in our little place. I’m a research junkie so I took the time to read up on what would be best to buy and I’m pretty happy overall with our little arsenal of paint gear. I’ve listed the supplies we’ve used to paint the walls in our house for anyone intersted:
wooster pelican pail liner (I’ve used gallon sized ziploc baggies in a pinch)
Mitchell and I got a corgi puppy while we were in undergrad so I’ll always have a soft spot for corgis. I thought our place needed some serious adult artwork hence this print and frame. So serious. Very adult. Please stop and enjoy the wonder that is our half yellow, half white stairwell. Guess how high I can reach with the paint roller and extension rod. Mitchell said he’d paint the portion that I couldn’t reach. That was in 2017. I’m still waiting.
The finished product! A successful translation of Pinterest come to life.