when DIY goes bad...

...i also could have titled this post :

"how to get paint out of your hair",

OR

"how to get paint off slate floors"

cuz, yeah.
i had a little paint MISHAP yesterday evening:

as you know, i have been putting off painting gradys bathroom for weeeeeeeeks now. i finally got the motivation last night at about 8pm to start. i know. bad idea #1.


 things were actually going very well. i finished all the prep work in under an hour, started cutting in along the ceiling and around the toilet,vanity and door, and was rolling the walls by 10, happily and loudly listening to pandora on my iphone. (a little abba with some disney movie songs thrown in. don't ask. i was in a weird mood.)

 i had finished my second coat, and had some paint in a container that i was using to do touch-ups along the ceiling. i totally forgot that i left the container of paint on the ladder...until i went to move the ladder and felt the paint fall on my head!!
and drip down my neck!
and basically get alllll over me and the floor.



of course, i had a drop cloth down, but about half of the paint that hit the floor happened to land on the one spot where the drop cloth had pulled away! yeah. good times.
what a mess!

not to mention the fact that i was trapped---there was paint all over my feet, so i had my husband and kids race around the house to get me some rags and paint thinner.

oh, and a coke zero.

you know, just the necessities.

so, i first washed the slate with some warm soapy water, which might have been a bad idea, but i was in full panic mode, and would have rubbed just about anything on the floor if it was in the bathroom. it actually did a pretty good job of removing a lot of the paint.

when i finally got a hold of some  paint thinner, i put that on a rag and rubbed and scrubbed. i was a little disappointed. i had to rub REALLY hard (at first with the rag, and then a kitchen scrub brush) and even then, there were little particles of paint that were stuck in the "grain" of the slate.

i ultimately tried using steel wool with the paint thinner, which seemed to work really well, but what really helped to removed the last bit of paint that was stuck in the grain of the tile was a magic eraser!

who knew.

the base board is still a mess...

you can see the haze that is on the tile BEFORE the magic eraser:

and here it is after the magic eraser:

i was happy with how the paint came off the floors. 

(it was definitely more difficult to get the paint off of a natural stone floor that off of ceramic tile. because i have spilled paint on ceramic/porcelain tile before--although not to this degree!-- and it was much easier to get off!)

oh, and one painting tip:

wrap your toilet with a trash bag while painting to keep from getting paint on the back while painting!

(if only i had also wrapped my head!)

which brings me to another tip:

how to get paint out of your hair!!

(i never thought i would be writing a tip on removing paint from hair. or maybe i HOPED i would never be writing a tip on removing paint from hair.)

here is what worked for me:

round 1: 

conditioner + 3-row comb (also called a pocket brush)

i just put some conditioner on my hair, and combed through it for a few minutes with the 3 row comb. it was like MAGIC. i kid you not. doing this removed about 90% of the paint in my hair.

(there have been times when i have had paint in my hair for days after painting a room. not anymore! i am going to do this from now on.)

round 2:

shampoo + rinse + conditioner + comb.

i just shampooed and rinsed my hair like normal, applied conditioner and combed it again.

voila.

ALL of the paint was gone.

potential mental breakdown averted.

for now.

anyway....here is the room this morning:

it was a late night, and i have a busy day. i still need to finish cleaning up the non-paint-spill mess from the bathroom, and do about 35 other things around the house....

but, i am happy to report that the floor looks almost as good as new. 

i still need to mop it and do some touch up scrubbing with the magic eraser.

and, the baseboard where the spill happened will need to be sanded and repainted.

but that can wait for another day. my kids get out of school early today, and i think i deserve a pedicure.

don't you agree?

have a happy weekend!