Friday, July 25, 2014

The Trouble with Tape

We've all done it: stuck pictures our kids created or some other, "let's display this temporarily" thing up on the wall with masking, packaging, or Scotch tape (I wonder if Scotts invented that tape?).
Then we forget about it and it stays taped to the wall indefinitely.  Here's what happens.
It isn't pretty.  In some ways, it's worse than nail pops, holes, or anything else which can happen to  walls because some of these patches you see here are sticky and will repel paint that goes over it.  So, for a day and a half I scrubbed those sticky spots alternately with Goo Be Gone, paint de-glosser, and then acetone.   The first did very little; the 2nd worked better, but mostly started eating into the paint (not a problem, since I was going back over that, but...).  Acetone worked best, but since the tape residue had worked its way into the paint, it was hard going.  Further, wherever you see spots that have ripped off the paint and the surface of the underlying drywall, the tape's adhesives had leached through the paint and directly into the drywall.  All 4 walls were covered with this type of thing--the girls' projects having been displayed lovingly in the laundry room by the kitchen for a decade. After and along with removing stubborn old adhesives, I patched and sanded, 
spreading it on thick to help dry out what I couldn't remove.
Finally, I've primed the entire laundry room, ceiling down to the molding 
(which I'll prime too, at the end).
Now the room is finally ready to have something wonderful added!!  I'm going to complement the adjacent hallway theme, only with more color.  After doing faux finishes through out the rest of the first level, we went with something the movie "Three Men and a Baby" inspired.  Remember the caricature mural outside their apartment?  I painted all the molding black and the door panels, to create a cartoon feel, and then added family member caricatures in, and extending out of, rectangular boxes (including each of their cats--my client rescues them and we've added one every other year or so.  The portraits of the deceased cats remain with the family to cherish).
 Stay tuned for how the room develops, with a fun alternative to tape, for the next time something 
is worth putting up on the wall.  Also, the likeness of Lulu, the newest kitty, 
will go in the laundry room!

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