Powder room paint (with an EZ twist!)

Hey hey all!

So a few weeks ago during our conversation a conversation with a friend I mentioned that I’ve only painted most of the rooms in our house once. She kind of laughed and didn’t believe me, but it’s true – half the house was the original color for eight years, and the master and bathroom, my stepdaughter’s room, the kitchen and family room and more have only been painted once and have stayed like that forever.

There’s a couple rooms I’ve painted like eleventy billion times though, so I think that’s what led to her confusion. But I’m on a mission and most of those other rooms I mentioned will be painted…someday?

The powder room is one of those rooms that’s been painted a lot -- five different colors to date. Two of those within the past couple of weeks. Over the course of two days. ;)

Well the folks from HomeRight contacted me a few months ago asking if I wanted to try out one of their paint sticks and I was like yeaaaahhhh!  I was so excited when they arrived and I got two! One is just a normal paint stick and one is the EZ-Twist, special!:

I needed to get the powder room painted – there is so much other stuff to do but I’m avoiding painting that wood paneling again till I absolutely have to, so this was easy in comparison. I’ve had that blue color up there (I honestly can’t even remember what the name of it is it’s been so long), and then I experimented with the red and I just needed it all covered and DONE.

I went back and forth on colors before deciding I really wanted a nice neutral. The art I’m planning to hang and the accessories will bring in a ton of color, so I wanted a nice, clean backdrop to it all. I had half a can of the Analytical Gray (Sherwin Williams) left so I figured why not use it up!

OK so here’s the thing – it seriously took me longer to get the paint stick out of the plastic packaging than it did to figure out how to use it. ;) It wasn’t hard at all – you just take the little nozzle jobby and clip it on the side of the paint can:

Then you place the stick on it (it’s already assembled when you get it), flip a little switch, then pull back on the stick and watch the paint get sucked in!:

The first time I used it I didn’t suck enough up in there (you want to make sure the stick is mostly full) – but you just place it back on the nozzle and pull again to fill it up more.

I gotta say, I really, really liked this tool. I talk to myself when painting and I may have mentioned a few times “this is so cool!!” to…myself:

A picture of the blogger!! Whuuut!

When I paint I have this weird fear that I will run out – even if it’s a tiny room, I will use as little on the roller as possible. You should not do this by the way. :) I end up pushing too hard to get it out of the roller on the wall, and it ends up killing my shoulders by the time I’m done.

This stick totally took care of it all for me – I just twisted as I went to get more into the roller. I was surprised at how little I had to twist too. And it went on SO stinking smooth. Every time I paint I have to watch for the lines of globby paint along the side of the roller because I push so hard. I didn’t see any while using this.

So it took me no time at all to get the walls done – seriously like ten minutes? I still had to cut in, but I realized pretty quickly that the color wasn’t what I wanted. It was too dark for what I envisioned – this color works great in our big open spaces in the house with lots of natural light, but in here it was a little drab.

So I went back to the paint deck and went with Agreeable Gray (SW) instead. I ended up cutting in first this time:

And then I used the paint stick to paint…again. :)

I LOVE it!!:

It’s a great neutral backdrop for the room. So light and pretty, it’s just perfect. And it still pops plenty against the white wood. (Ignore the paint all over the crown, it all still needs painted and caulked from years ago. Surprised?)

I especially love how it looks against the light blue ceiling. You know how I love those painted ceilings!

I’ll probably only show you one more part of the room before the final reveal – maybe by next week?? (Crossing fingers, toes, everything.) My to do list is getting crossed out slowly but surely – but then I remember all kinds of things I need to add to it too. ;)

Overall I really liked using the paint stick and I will use it again – it made the whole process go much easier and faster. The only part that takes time is cleaning it out – but after doing it once it was much faster the second time.

The good news is there is progress in this room, the best news is the lovely folks at HomeRight are offering TWO of the PaintStick EZ-Twists to two of you! Awww. yeah!

Just leave a comment here by Thursday the 16th at 9 a.m. to be entered to win. (Leave an email too!) That’s it! (And if you’d like to pick up one yourself you can find them at Lowe’s.) Have a LOVELY day!

**This giveaway is now closed! Winners have been contacted.