Recently I tackled a DIY project at our place that had been on my to-do list for a LONG time – spray painting our old Colorbond sheds black. Woohoo! I know they are just sheds, but they look SO much better now that it legitimately thrills me. I had it in my head for months how much nicer they would look black, and they turned out even better, which is always a nice surprise. I’m totally revealing the absolute dag I am here, but do you guys get the same way about house and garden projects? You think of something you want to make over, and then you cannot get it out of your brain. Every time I looked at those old sheds I would think about how much more sexy they would look if they were black. (Can I get away with using the words ‘sexy’ and ‘sheds’ in the same sentence? I think so).
I think it’s because those sheds backdrop our new deck and outdoor living spaces, and our house had this gorgeous new look with the Scyon cladding, and we had this beautiful new patio and deck, but behind it were these really average old sheds. They’ve been there since we bought the place and you see them from every single back room of our house. Practical, but not very pretty. The small shed was maybe made from Zincalume (I’m guessing?) and the large one was cream Colorbond, with bore water stains.
Mr Nerd is generally supportive of my crazy endeavours, but I can’t say he quite understood my obsession with painting them black. “Why would you want to bother painting the sheds?” he asked.
He ate his words when he saw the results. There is just something about black paint, isn’t there? It has transformative powers. Especially in a garden – plants look so brilliant against black; it makes buildings – even big sheds – seem to recede; it sort of ties everything together and it just looks bold and deliberate. I can’t get enough of black houses and sheds.
The kids have been consuming a good chunk of my energy, time and soul lately but the perfect excuse to finally paint came when Dulux put the word out about their new Jelly Beans campaign. This year from September to October everyone who buys 8L of Dulux paint from Bunnings or an independent hardware store receives a tin of jellybeans, one-of-five collectable Dulux puppies and helps support the company’s $140,000 donation to Second Chance Animal Rescue in Melbourne, and I was happy to put my blogger hat on and do my bit.
So, I got my black Dulux Weathershield paint (Dulux Monument – to tie in with our house’s cladding paint scheme, which we did in Dulux Monument and Dulux Natural White) I cleaned the sheds with a hose and an old broom, and then I began painting.
With a brush. With the kids at my feet. I know.
