painting the master bedroom.

we did it! we committed and FINALLY got around to painting our bedroom. it had white walls when we moved in and was very blah. we went with a color that would be fairly neutral [fingers crossed we won't have to paint when we go to move]. our inspiration was white, gray with purple accents.

PAINT CHOICE: unique gray in satin finish from Sherwin williams


we did lots of research before we tackled this project and young house love is one of the most useful blogs to read for new-ish DIYers. here is a link explaining different finishes: and it explains why we went with satin finish.  we also read this blog post from YHL complete with painting tips and tricks. needless to say it took us much longer than them but we got lots of good ideas.

we saved time by not clearing our room out or laying down tarp. and we succeeded in finishing the project without any paint spills. if you are careful this isn't an issue [particularly with wood flooring].

[our set up. hard to see but we moved everything into the center of the room]

 

also we skipped the painter's tape and used an 2" short handled angle brush for cutting in and edging as recommended in the blog posts above.

we divided our resources well: ian = roller, megan = edger. we did our first coat in about 2.5 hours. the second coat took longer because we were left with only a 1/4 of a gallon and didn't want to have to buy an entire gallon again [our finish only came in this size] so to problem solve megan went over by hand the places with limited coverage using the brush then did the whole wall with the roller to even it out. this required lots of pushing and tounge-sticking-out concentration [as Sherry would say].

[the good looking roller]

 

 [the crazy and un-fashionable edger]

 

[before the second coat. look closely at the ceiling/wall border you can see where things were not blending well & also where there was limited coverage]

 

then we tackled the trim in our bedroom. which took a while. we ended up going to purchase a second angled brush so that ian could also work on this. work goes much faster when it is split by two. all in all we tackled this weekend project efficiently and had our room put back together in just a few short days. started on friday - finished on saturday evening, reorganized on sunday. yay us!

[finished: with natural lighting]

[finished: artificial lighting]

 

BEFORE AND AFTER

lessons learned:
-moving furniture to the center of the room is a time saver but can create shadows, particularly when painting at night
-paint can be deceiving in a swatch, our paint looked darker than either of us had envisioned but sure enough when you hold the swatch up they are the same color. if you are unsure invest in a sample size to make sure you get what you want. we weren't overly concerned and are very happy with our results just different than we had dreamed of in our heads.
-plaster textured walls are difficult. no matter what.
-we recommend edging first because it is much easier for the person rolling to blend then when you do in reverse [which is what we did our first time around]
-we hammered nail holes in the top to save some headache and paint allowing it to drip back in after you pour some out and it pools along the lip of the paint can