Painting walls and some such

A few weeks ago, a very good friend of mine told me that her boss had asked her to decorate a wall in her house which was so painfully pink. I have known my friend Clarin since high school and since I like her so much decided to let the matter be. :)  ( Beleive it or not people, I have come to accept the fact that most people are not fond of the colour that signifies health and happiness and strawberry cake.. Oh I could go on… ) Clarin is a very talented artist and has done wall murals many times before. I was extremely happy she asked for my help or perhaps it was my company, for my artistic talents go as far as applying makeup. I did not mention this fact to her of course, and because of that I got to paint 2 leaves and a grey wall! The whole thing took just 2 days to complete and was great fun!

We went over to her boss’s house on a sunday quietly hoping the paint shops would be open. Her boss is just crazy about plants and so we decided to go along with a umm… planty-theme? Once we decided on a design we head out in search of paint. After circling the neighbourhood 3 times and contemplating travelling 20kms to another place, we finally found a shop that was open. Now it never struck us then why this particular shop would be open on a sunday evening. ( We later realised that all he had was distemper and pigment!!! ) We just praised our luck and bought the first paint the shop owner suggested. We got back to the house and started painting! Here’s some pictures.

Yes. We had to mix a yucky paste with water to start with! Since Clarin had the most experience she got the job! Sadly I was not spared either.

I never thought that four girls would decide on the color grey to cover up the pink, but thats the color we chose. I am still surprised! Below is a picture of Sheila, Clarin and her boss Sneha finishing the first coat of grey.

We were expecting a very dark coat but once it dried, it turned 3 shades lighter. If you manage to see anything past me, you’ll notice a very pale shade of grey covering a beautiful pink wall!

Heres a picture of the second coat in a darker grey. You can see the contrast!

Now i know that it looks like absolute shit from these pictures but it turned out to be quite nice in the end. We used a distemper paint which was the only kind the shop had. It gives a very rough cheap finish but since we were going to paint a design over it we weren’t all that worried. ( Maybe just a little bit )

Here’s a picture of clarin starting with the design. To get green paint we had to mix a green pigment with white distemper and it wasn’t easy to get the right viscosity! Infact, we ran out out black pigment for the grey paint and at one point of time were desperate enough to think about using Sneha’s mother’s Hair Dye! We gave up in the end and settled with the grey we were stuck with. It didnt come out too bad though. Phew. Clarin started with the design that she drew free hand on the wall! :O I was so impressed!

Here’’s a picture of me painting my 2 leaves!

I had to leave early to catch a play and left clarin to finish it. She did a great job and the final result was simly superb! Here’s the proof!

A close up of the shading done. Tell me what you think of it!! If anyone in Bangalore wants their walls decorated, just leave a comment. Clarin plans to start a business out of this and fashion designing sooner or later and I would like to wish her the very best!