paint is awesome

it's amazing what a difference a coat of paint (or two, or three...) makes for the look of a room.

now the living room was probably the best looking room of the house, decor wise. There was no wallpaper (hallelujah!), and while there was a decorative paint finish on the walls, it was comparatively subtle and neutral.

I had yesterday off and instead of sleeping or relaxing, I decided to paint the living room.

We'd decided on a color--Benjamin Moore Shenandoah Taupe--but had yet to get the paint. So I trucked off to the nice friendly paint store and picked up a gallon. I also got a quart each of Knoxville Grey and Gray Cashmere as possibles for the dining room.

Then I painted the ceiling. It took forever and I'm pretty sure it's a form of torture. I know it's what is causing the pain in my back today. How my mom does it so quickly and nicely, I'll never know. She had already primed it and cut in around the light fixture, because she rules.

Now it looks worlds better. Previously, it was a crappy dingy dirty yellow. Clean white ceiling! YAY!

Next, the trim, save the baseboards, in white semi gloss. I have to say, I'm pretty good at painting trim and cutting in. I think this may be a function more of the brushes than of me. I love my new sash brushes. Yes. I am a dork.

The trim took longer than I thought though, because there are two windows and two wide door openings. I even did the actual windows and not just the casings. And no paint on the glass either! The windows and the door openings are missing a few pieces of the smaller thinner trim that frames out the flat piece of wood on either side of the casings, so it was a little difficult to cut in. We need to find the right profile and replace that, maybe when we replace the missing baseboard caps in the dining room.

Then wall color! It took forever to cut in, again, because of the missing moldings. But I saved some time by not really bothering to cut in at the top. We currently have a narrow piece of picture molding up there, that we're planning to replace with a proper crown molding plus picture rail. The current proportions are just too small--it needs a more substantial piece. Meanwhile it made it a hell of a lot easier to just roll straight to the molding. By the time I was done with one coat, the first wall was dry enough to get a second one on. And while Benjamin Moore paint covers exceptionally well, the color definitely needed the second coat.

Round this time, JBB showed up post work. We both agreed, the color looks fabulous. I am in love with the walls. I would totally marry the walls.

I need to upload pictures, and you too, would totally marry the walls. They are HOT.

HOWEVER. Now I am thinking the planned Knoxville Grey/Cashmere Gray combo for the dining room will not work. The two rooms open to each other, and in the dining room there's a high picture rail about 4 1/2 feet up around the entire room. This will be semi-gloss white, which will be white along with all the other trim (at some point we will investigate to see if there really are pocket doors between the rooms, but first things first).

So what colors should we look at? Maybe red on bottom, cream on top? Chocolate brown, sage green top? We have black/very dark brown-black dining room table and china cabinet. I'd grabbed a red paint chip to look at Rhubarb for the offices, but Smoldering Red looks pretty good.... Suggestions?


next up:
second coat on master bedroom
baseboards in master bedroom
stripping more wallpaper in every other damn room
more demo of the kitchen