Do you remember the first Pinterest project you tried? You know the one that had all the promise in the world of delivering, and making you feel like you were on top of the world. The one where your kids stand in awe, and your husband is so impressed he does the dishes after dinner?! I was so relieved once I started seeing people post their “Pinterest Fails”. Like literally, deep exhale of all that striving and thinking “you can do this”, just to have a complete and utter failure of a project sitting in front of you staring back at you in all of it’s ugliness. Yeah… one of those moments. I have seriously had my fair share of pinterest fails. A so close to amazing project that ended up just being a complete bomb. It was hard to think of one that stuck out more than the other. I remember this time I thought I could free hand paint a vintage looking sign on this amazing piece of old barn wood.
Yeah, about 3 cups of coffee later, and a complete nap time wasted, was this pathetic looking piece of really cool wood, with chicken scribble all over it. I seriously wanted to stop right there, and never do that again. Thankfully getting it wrong the first few times around, gives you plenty of examples of what is not right, and what needs to be fixed.
But I will never forget the time I attempted to make my own chalk paint and then paint a wall in my house with it. This was after a few pinterest wins, and the confidence level was pretty high. So high in fact that I didn’t read the labels really well, and over looked the fact that my un-sanded grout was in fact sanded. I mixed my paint, stirred in my sanded grout, made sure my proportions were right, and started rolling away! I was so confident in fact that all the warning signs of this may be a bad idea had turned off in my head because I knew that sometimes in DIYing you must keep swimming before you see the end result. After the first coat dried I realized that things were starting to not look so well. I began rolling on the second coat of this DIY chalk paint concoction only to be terrified at the result. Guys, it legit look like I was just painting sand on my wall. Like I went out into the sandbox grabbed a handful of sand and rubbed it on my wall! Only this sand was mixed with paint, making it permanent! My heart started racing faster. Panic was starting to set in as I began thinking I have completely ruined our house. Our first house, and I ruined it with my stupid hairball idea! I can’t fix this before my husband gets home. Wait, can I? Can I enlist help of someone to come in, tear down the sheet rock, put up new sheet rock and paint it all in the 3 hours before my husband was due to come home from work, completely unsuspecting that there was even anything going on! Nope, there was no way that was going to work. I’m going to have to fess up to my hubby that I thought this was going to be amazing, only to find out that now he has to completely redo a wall in our house. What was I going to do?!
I decided to do some investigating. Slow down the panic train, deep breaths, ok what did I do wrong? What did I miss? I examined the bag of grout, it said “sanded”, that’s what I need write? I pulled up the instructions on Pinterest, wait what! It says “UN-sanded”. There is a difference? Let me tell you – THERE IS A DIFFERENCE! So I turned the thinking cap on. “Ok, it called for unsanded, I used sanded, what to do, what to do?” “I know, I’ll just sand it! I have sand paper. I will make this grout unsanded”. With no idea if this was going to work it was my only hope, before fessing up to the husband my big DIY failure, and he would tell me I can no longer blog if it’s going to bring on unwarranted decisions like this. I grabbed my sandpaper and started sanding the wall. Yep, total arm work-out for sure. Like my arm is going to fall off I have to sand this down so much. I wiped off the dust, painted a 3rd and final coat and crossed my fingers.
Once it was dried I examined the wall. “Ok, not as bad as before”, so I sanded it some more, this time for sure thinking my arm is going to fall off! Wiped off the dust, only to now have to “season” the wall. Still not knowing if this was even going to work or not. I through a hail mary and started rubbing chalk all over the wall to season it. Did I mention I thought my arm was going to fall off?! Once I was done I grabbed and eraser and started rubbing it all in. Now all that was left to do was test it out and write on the wall with some chalk. HUGE GULP – “Here goes nothing” I thought. I mean what did I have to loose, I already figured I was a gonner, why not seal the deal. I wrote “Hi”, and you know what it WORKED! I started scribbling a little more. Holy Crap, I’m a genius! Well, maybe not quite, but my so close to amazing DIY, turned out to be one the most popular walls in my house to this day. It’s the first thing that people marvel about when they walk in our house, and I’m so glad I had so many “So close to amazing” fails, that I stuck with it, and didn’t give up!
I don’t consider myself a story-teller, but I have a friend who is not only an inspiring blogger, she is an AMAZING story teller. And that is just how her new book starts off. With the best story of her teenage self and a “So Close to Amazing” event! I was captured right away, and seriously related on so many levels. I am not much of reader, but this book had me in stitches, and tears. I felt like I sat down with a group of my best girlfriends, telling war stories, laughing the night away!
I highly recommend Karianne from Thistlewood Farms new book “So Close to Amazing”, available now. You can find it on her blog, HERE, along with a bunch of other hysterical stories, and inspiring ones, and some beautiful home decor. You can also find it on Amazon, HERE. 
I’m telling you, you will not be able to put this book down. And most of all, it’s inspiring and beautiful and celebrates life, and the way God created each and every one of us!
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Love your story and so glad it worked. I do like your wall.
I have had that same experience of not wanting my husband to know that I made such a huge mistake. I had the same thoughts running through my head. I even called a shop I thought could send someone over to fix it, but no I was going to have to tell him.
He wasn’t too upset, but I hated thinking how I could have made such big error.