Learning lessons…and liking it?

Alternate title…”I may be going crazy!”

For some reason I like to learn things the hard way.  Which makes absolutely no sense with my perfectionist personality!  I have this process of researching something until there’s nothing left to research anymore, deciding that half of the world feels that you should do it one way and the other half of the world thinks you should do it the totally opposite way, and feeling so overwhelmed that I finally just decide to go for it and make my mistakes and learn along the way.  I guess it’s good that I do the research and know the possible problems that may come up, but eventually you just have to dive in and figure it out yourself.

So, you may be asking yourself what the heck I’m referring to.  Well, I’ve started a new little venture that I’m really excited about.  I have decided to start refinishing/painting furniture.  Right now it will just be a hobby and will mostly be pieces for my own home, but I’m hoping it could someday turn into something I can get paid to do.  I don’t even know how I got into this, but I can probably blame it on Pinterest!  ;)  I think I must have been searching for something and saw a piece of painted furniture and one thing led to another and I was on a couple different blogs falling in love with all these pieces these women had refinished/painted and thinking that it might be fun to try it out myself.  So, I got my booty over to Craigslist and found my first piece, a 1960’s nightstand that would be perfect for our “guestroom” in the basement.  I got the nightstand and kept doing research.  Which kind of paint to use – chalk paint or latex?  Would I stain the top or just paint the whole thing?  Do I strip it or just sand it?  Lots of things I needed to figure out before I felt confident enough to start.  But ya know what?  I finally got to the point that I needed to just start.  I guess I figure if I do enough research, I’ll do it “perfectly” and it will turn out beautifully and all will be right with the world.  But then how will I ever learn anything?  So I just got on with it and painted the darn thing.  The nightstand is almost done now, just need to buff the wax topcoat, and I’m really happy with it.  But I did learn some lessons along the way.  And the weird part is that I’m happy about it.  This is where the crazy comes in!  When I completed each step in my refinishing process, I thought, “well, I don’t like this or that, but now I know and can try something different next time.”  That thought kind of disturbs the perfectionist side of me.  It scares that part of me because that part of me thinks everything should turn out perfect the first time.  But I’m just gonna go with it and be happy for my positive outlook.  Yes, I want what I produce to be beautiful and look professional, but it doesn’t have to be perfect.  In fact, perfect to me could be totally different than perfect to someone else.  And if I start selling my pieces, the imperfections I see and dislike may just be the things that someone else likes and the reason they buy a certain piece!

I’ll be sharing my nightstand makeover later this week, so be sure to stop back and check it out!  I’m so excited to share my process and end result with you all!