In a few weeks we’ll be teaching seminary, and the room where class is held was… well, kind of run-down. I think it’s just one of those areas in the church building that doesn’t get a lot of attention. The only people who really use it are the seminary classes, the young adults, and the missionaries. So it’s sort of neglected. The walls had holes, scuffs, scratches, sticky residue, chipped paint, and so on. Old posters were barely hanging on; some of the photos were downright weird. The computers had a mess of disorganized cables. You get the idea.
We decided it was due for a facelift. We thought it would be really great to paint the room in a nice light blue-grey, or something similar, to give it a quiet, relaxing feel. What a peaceful environment that would make for the groups who used it! Alas, when we asked about doing that, we were told the Church has a single paint color that’s approved for buildings. It’s called Pacer White (which is actually sort of a creamy yellow), and Thou Shalt Not paint walls any other color. Sigh.
We bought a little sampler of the paint and attempted to touch up the scuffs and scratches. However, the new paint didn’t match the old… not because it was the wrong color, but because the walls probably hadn’t been painted since they were first built thirty years ago. The paint itself had simply faded from sunlight and time. In the end, we had to paint everything.
We enlisted the help of a few friends, including our fellow seminary teacher Jen, and went to work on a first coat.
It was a nice improvement, but needed a second coat. We rounded up the hermanas.
After two days of work, the room looked so much better!
I still pine a little bit that we couldn’t paint it blue, but we can feel good that it’s nicer than it was. It’ll elevate our seminary experience.