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Yesterday, someone asked me, “Are you going to finish painting the ceiling before or after you finish the cabinets?“To be clear, it is No A cheeky comment, and asking questions is fine. She was wondering about my process and I definitely understood. And you want to know what’s funny? Once again, I conveniently forgot that I had not yet finished painting the ceiling and walls in the studio.
The ceiling looked like this months ago and still looks like this today…
As I mentioned a few days ago, at this point I developed a kind of blindness towards it and I was hyper-focused on my current project — finishing the office area cabinets. This is what the cabinets look like now. I finished the side panels, electrical for the scans and the cubby bridge.
At this point, I don’t really remember the unfinished walls and ceiling unless I make a mental list (or an actual written list) of the projects I still need to complete in the room. And at this rate, painting the ceiling is probably one of the last things I’ll do to finish this room.
I’ve always been a DIYer doing things my own way. I’ll be the first to admit that my ways don’t always make sense and they’re not the most effective way to do a project. But after 30+ years of DIYing, and especially since we’ve moved into this house and had an awful lot of whole house remodeling to tackle pretty much on my own (calling in help or pros only when absolutely necessary), I’ve learned I have to be guided by my impulses.
My current work in the studio is a good example of that. I am totally dreading having to paint that ceiling. I don’t know why, and maybe it’s one of those projects I’ve dreaded for so long that it ended up worse in my head than it actually was. But whatever the reason, I don’t want to do it. So if I insist on doing things in the order they make the most sense or the order they seem most effective, and try to force myself to paint before doing anything else, I make excuses every day. Why can’t I paint and the whole studio project stops?
Instead, I went with my inspiration. I was motivated and excited to tackle the office area cabinets, so I went with it. Will that make things more difficult for me later? Maybe a little. Now, before I paint the ceiling, I need to cover the cabinets and the wallpaper mural with plastic, and I need to cover the floor. But it wasn’t a big deal and it only took about an hour to get everything done before I had to paint.
And I also suspect that when the office area cabinets are done and looking good, I’ll actually be inspired to paint the ceiling and the rest of the walls. At that point, I would be very excited to finish the entire studio and tackle any project that was holding me back from having a fully finished studio. That’s what usually happens. I’m finally excited to finish projects that I’ve dreaded and put off because they got in the way of me having a full room.
I know I’ve shared all of this in years before, but I want to reiterate for those of you who are working on larger or even whole house projects. Yes, there is always a “correct” order to do things. But we DIYers don’t exactly stick to them. Obviously, there are times when things are do To be done in a specific order. Yes, you should hang the drywall before you install the cabinets. Please don’t install cabinets on studs and then try to put drywall around them because you hate drywall and want to stop it.
But you know what I mean. Don’t commit to the right sequence as you drag your feet, procrastinating for days or weeks or months because the “right” next step is something you absolutely dread. Instead, see if there’s a way you can move forward and find something you can do to help you see progress. And if you’re like me, once you see that room come together, you’ll be excited to wake up one day and do the thing you’ve been dreading. ..
Don’t be too hard on yourself or too strict on your schedule and order of projects. It will all work out eventually. And I find that creating a little extra work for myself later (like covering the ceiling with plastic before I finish painting it now) is worth it if I can move on and make progress on other things. Things I’m really excited to tackle right nowwhich is the story of my 30+ years of DIYing (mainly since 2013), and things always seem to work out in the end.
So with that in mind, I’m going to ignore my unpainted ceiling and walls and I’m going to spend the afternoon and evening trimming my cabinets and getting them ready for primer and paint. It will take a lot of trim, wood filler and caulk to get this thing to look like I see it in my mind, but that’s the fun part!
And maybe after these cabinets are done, I’ll get up one day excited to get out the paint roller, pull out the scaffolding, and paint an 11-foot ceiling with a ceiling fan and 10 recessed lights. 😀 But for today, I am very motivated to work on these cabinets.
Note: On a completely different topic, I know my email program has been sending doubles an hour apart for the past few days. I’m so sorry about that! I promise I’m not trying to spam you all! I thought I fixed it on Tuesday, then it did it again yesterday. I took another look and think I’ve fixed it now. I hope so. So you should only get one email per day, but please let me know if it’s still sending doubles. Sorry for all the annoying double emails!
Addicted 2 Decorating shares my DIY and decorating journey as I renovate and decorate the 1948 Fixer Upper that my husband, Matt, and I purchased in 2013. Matt has MS and is unable to do physical activity, so I do most of the housework myself. You can learn more about me here.
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