Learn French: Au lieu de faire peindre le mur, je le peins moi-même. - Instead of having the wall painted, I'm painting it myself.

Moi-même translates to "myself." In French, adding -même to a stressed pronoun (like moi, toi, lui, elle) emphasizes that the subject performed the action personally. Here, it highlights the contrast with the first half of the sentence, stressing that you are doing the painting instead of the hired help.

Why use faire peindre instead of just peindre in the first half of the sentence?

This uses the causative construction (faire + infinitive), which you use when you have someone else do an action for you. Faire peindre le mur means "to have the wall painted" (by a professional, for example), whereas peindre le mur means you are doing the actual brushwork.

English says "Instead of having...", so why is it faire and not the -ant form (faisant)?

In French, prepositions (like de in the phrase au lieu de) must always be followed by the infinitive form of a verb, never the present participle. Therefore, "instead of having" translates using the infinitive: au lieu de faire.

What is the purpose of le in je le peins?

Le is the direct object pronoun replacing le mur (the wall) to avoid repeating the noun. Remember that in French, object pronouns must be placed directly before the conjugated verb, which gives us je le peins (I paint it).