Saturday, July 11, 2009

HOW TO GET PAINT OUT OF CARPET

Yep. "HOW TO GET PAINT OUT OF CARPET" was my google question for about five minutes until I realized there was no quick cure for the puddle of sapphire blue paint on the carpet in Trevor's room. I was finally finishing up Trevor's room last week. I had installed the baseboards and was just doing some touchup painting before the room was complete (besides adding a closet door, but it's a weird size and I just haven't made it to the Special Order desk). Since I was just doing some touchup work I thought it would be easier if I just put paint in a paper cup instead of lugging around the big gallon of paint. Worked great. There were a few areas that needed a second coat since Suddenly Sapphire is such a dark and vibrant color, so I had the paper cup on the floor (I know, stupid mistake) while I was cleaning some stuff in Trevor's room. He was at EFY so I thought I'd have the room all finished and clean when he came home--I was trying to be such a nice mom. Next thing I know, I look around the corner and the paper cup had somehow fallen and there was a nice puddle of blue paint on the tan carpet.

My heart started pounding and I started panicking. I tried googling for help...but no easy and sure fire ideas came to me. I thought about taking a picture for the blog--really--but I did not want to waste any time at all in my feeble rescue attempt.

I started blotting and blotting. I went through one roll of paper towels. I started dabbing with water and blotting. I went through another roll of paper towels. I did this for four hours until I needed a dinner break. I was starving, exhausted, and my shoulders were killing me. I told Chris "We're going to In and Out and I'm getting fries and a shake and I'm not sharing with anybody." Hunger and stress had clearly taken it's toll.

I came back from dinner and dabbed and blotted for a couple more hours. I thought it was looking pretty good before I went to bed. Not perfect, but better. The next morning it didn't look as good as it seemed to the night before it so I contined my blotting, scrubbing, and stressing. I went through at least four rolls of paper towels (thank goodness I had bought some from Costco) and all my white hand towels.

And now? There's still a very slight blue tint to the area of carpet, but it looks so much better than I ever dreamed it would. I thought for sure the room would need new carpet or a permanent rug over the area, but it's not too noticeable. I'm still going to work on it a little bit more...I think I can get it looking even better. And yes, I've learned my lesson.

4 comments:

Jo said...

Time to invest in the Little Green Machine by Bissel. It would have been perfect for the task. Instead of 5 hours it would have taken maybe a 1/2. I'm sorry you had to go through that, but it was fun to read :) !

Liz Rose said...

Oh man! I was going to say rug---:) Lets see a picture of all your hard work!

Kim said...

I can so relate to that heart pounding panic. I broke a bottle of bright red nail polish on my travertine floor (with all those natural pits where stuff likes to hide). Glad you got it mostly out though, but I concur, no fun!

Gayle and Curt Family Blog said...

wow i want a picture. You should have done a before and after. We would all be soooo proud of you!