If the walls could talk......

You may have noticed last week that the wall behind the tansu project has been painted white. This was another one of those jobs that I really wanted to get to and start. You see the tatami room is where we sleep and as you look up at the walls it can feel quite depressing and dreary. 

See what I mean...depressing!

I felt the walls were crying out for some paint. It may sound funny to say, but as I was painting the walls I felt them say, "Thank you" or rather "Arigato." 

Once I had washed down the walls I was ready to paint and I have to say that once I had the paint roller in my hand and some music playing in the background I was in my element. 

Little did I know as a young girl on my first trip to Japan and to Oban chan chi's, that 23 years laters I would return to paint the walls of this humble farmhouse. As my mother always says, "You never know what will happen from one day to the next." 

The walls inside the main area of the house are primarily mud walls, so I applied a coat of "Milky White" paint with a paint brush first to cut in and then afterwards used the roller. 

I have to say that the small narrow roller was brilliant to use. In my home country of Australia we have smaller rollers, but not this narrow and it isn't as heavy when it is loaded with paint. So it made the job much more enjoyable.

The mission was to paint the whole tatami area which took me a full day. I was happy that I only needed to stand on a box rather than a ladder, as the ceiling height is a bit lower making the job less back breaking.

It seems that Oban chan had a grey undercoat applied, but didn't go any further which I imagine wasn't on her mind financially at the time. 

My next job is to paint the wood trims a dark chocolate brown, as opposed to black which is a traditional look for the area but with it being such a small area it may feel a bit overwhelming. A bit more research will be needed to make our final paint purchase decision. While I only needed to stand on a box to paint, my back was still feeling the ache and so it was time for another onsen!

Cherry blossoms and canola flowers line the Naka river in Oba chan's town