Too close for comfort...

You would think by the time a person reaches the ripe old age of 53 that she knows a thing or two about safety. Surely by then she would have garnered, assimilated, and internalized words of advice from her mother, her teachers, health care professionals, DIY TV shows and blogging friends. I'm here to tell you, someone ... somewhere let me down. I'm not pointing a finger. I'm merely stating facts.

In an effort to educate the general public (that's you) I will pass on a valuable piece of information that I amassed earlier today. Let me set the scene...

Several weeks ago I took a questionnaire online that helped determine my interior design style. The questionnaire concluded that my favorite style is "Nantucket."

When I've taken questionaires similar to this in the past, they have rarely been accurate. For example, one time I took a "What kind of cookie are you?" test. It pegged me as a "sugar cookie." What the heck? Who wants to be a plain old sugar cookie, when one can be a "White Chocolate Macademian Nut" cookie? Another time I took a "Which Austen heroine are you?" quiz. It turns out I am most like Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility. Swell. Elinor is practical, circumspect, and discreet. Sounds exciting, eh? I've got to start thinking outside the box when I take these tests.

Take the Quiz here!

I digress... Amazingly enough, when I took the interior design test, it truly did isolate my favorite interior design style. I love the soft bluish hues against the white backdrop in these rooms. So much so, that I decided to makeover one of our basement bedrooms to reflect a little more of this style.

The last few weeks have been spent acquiring two nightstands, a headboard, bedding, and various other sundries to make this guest bedroom a coastal retreat. Today I started the painting process.

In this room we have a bookshelf, attached to the wall, that stretches from one corner of that wall to the other. When the boys were young, it drove me crazy to have their nightstands, dressers, and desk space covered with junk their priceless treasures, so my husband and I built these shelves in their rooms so they could store their belongings up and out of the way. Below the shelf are pegs so they could hang up their hats, baseball gloves, etc.

A few days ago I determined the first order of business for the makeover is to repaint the walls and this bookshelf. The shelf has been a distressed red color for years, so I decided to paint it black for a new look. This is where it got interesting. Several months ago I refinished a wooden chair by spray painting it black. I loved how it turned out, so I thought spray painting this shelf might be the way to go. I covered the floor and furniture with drop cloths. I taped off the wall around the shelf and started spraying. All the while not realizing the mounting fumes, and that I could have leveled my house with an explosion that would have rivaled an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.

Ka - Boom.

After several minutes I stood back to admire the results and realized the ventilation in the room was non existent and that this particular room is adjacent to our furnace room. Hmmm. Double ka - boom. That's when I turned off the heater (yes, the pilot light was still on) and started a few fans. Eventually, the air cleared. Eventually.

All I'm saying, is ... a little heads up along the way about spray painting protocol would have been nice. I might have caused myself serious harm. Not to mention our cat, the neighbors and a healthy squirrel population in our little burb.

When I confessed my indiscretion to my husband, he suggested that I carefully read the label on the can from now on. My suggestion to him was that a "know-it-all" attitude is unbecoming a gentleman.

In all fairness, I was aware of the admonition on the can to use the spray in a "well ventilated area." I just considered that advice more of a gentle suggestion, rather than a deliberate precautionary measure. And there, my friends, is the lesson for us all.

I will say, however, that the shelf looks awesome. Truly. Trust me when I say, it's never looked better. I'll take a picture of it later to prove my point...

Have a good day and don't forget to scroll down and sign up for my wristlet give away!