On Saturday morning, I got up before the rest of my family to spray paint my now unsmelly thrift store dresser. When you live where I live, the best spray painting is done before 7 am when it’s not too hot and the wind is eerily still. Crazy, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
The grass was dewey when I headed into the backyard, so I put down a plastic tarp to protect my dresser. I normally use a canvas tarp when painting, but I didn’t want the grass to get it wet.
After I painted the dresser, we ran some errands and then came back home to bring the it inside. Tom and I were surprised to see how much moisture was on the bottom of the plastic tarp. I guess the sun had drawn all of the moisture out of the grass, which, in turn, became severely dehydrated in a few short hours.
The good news is that my dresser looks amazing (and I will reveal it to you soon). The bad news is that the grass now looks like this:
Note to self: 100 degree heat + plastic sheeting over moist lawn = dead grass. Hopefully, it will come back pretty quickly. If not, our backyard will serve as a reminder of my stupidity for the rest of the summer.
Amanda @ Serenity Now says
Ooh, no! (smacks palm on forehead) What a bummer, Lindsay. I don’t think that I would have thought to move the tarp either!!
Laurel G says
Hehe, well at least you use a tarp/plastic. I use pieces of cardboard and I just spray and get fun little shapes on my grass lol. Luckily it has been pretty small things so far so no major over-spray issues. Hope the grass comes back!
Amber says
Tee hee… happens to the best of us!
PJ says
D’oh! That’s the worst 🙁 I too sometimes just spraypaint directly onto the grass. I figure it will grow and get cut and no one will know. Then again sometimes I have grass shadows I have to cover up where the grass blocked the spray and that’s just so attractive.
Barbara aka Pink Overalls says
And I thought you’all didn’t even get dew in Texas. That’s amazing to have so much destruction in such a short time. I’m sure your lawn will recover. Or not…
Deborah says
Oh, I feel your pain. I’ve done this numerous times with the slip n’ slide. I have also completely melted the insulation on our hot tub cover with the notorious slip n’ slide when we laid it over the hot tub to dry for an hour. It’s amazing what the heat from the sun will do when coupled with vinyl or plastic.
Rachel says
Now what you need to do is spray paint the grass green again! 🙂
Lindsay says
You are one smart cookie!
Danielle says
Or, you have created the perfect spray painting spot for the rest of the summer…I’d say that’s a perfect excuse to spray paint everything!
Amy at The Red Chair Blog says
Wow! And I thought our NC sun was ruthless. Oh well, why not just spray paint that brown patch green 🙂 ?
I’ve been away from Blogland for ages–I think you were still pregnant when I took a break from blogging, so congratulations on your beautiful baby girl and your little guy who’s getting so big!! I love the nursery pics–so serene.
Amy
Lindsay says
Thank you, Amy!
Pam says
Oh wow! I would never have thought that would happen! If it does not bounce back… you could always spraypaint! 🙂
Nancy says
Want to kill your entire lawn in a hurry? Lay out a swimming pool cover (the kind that floats on the water to heat the water) on the lawn to cut it!
Lindsay says
Oof! That sounds like you have had the same experience as me. It’s crazy how quickly the grass will die.
Nancy says
This was Really dumb since the point of the cover is to conduct heat!
Debbie says
I did the same thing with a door mat last week. Threw it down on the grass as I washed down the porch and porch furniture for somewhere between 2-3 hours. Picked it up and dead grass. Mowed twice since then and there’s still a bit of dead grass. Even DH was surprised!
Brienna says
I wonder if this works on weeds! 🙂
Lindsay says
You are brilliant!
Ruth says
Wow-that sun is very hot. Hopefully your lawn comes back quickly.
I have been doing some catching up on your blog. It’s been way too long since I’ve had a chance to stop by.
Ruth
Lindsay says
Hi Ruth! Glad to see you!
Heather says
Spray paint the lawn green!!
Genevieve says
I feel your pain. We have 2! similar areas in the shape of a slip n slide.