Moonshine Living Room

After months of choosing colors, rechoosing colors, picking out color samples, testing color samples and good ole procrastination... the living room has been painted!

The room may not look completely different in the pictures, as we went from an off white to a pretty neutral light gray, but in person it makes all the difference. Really. See this is what it looked like before...

And then this is what it looked like a few minutes later, after Kyle and I pushed everything to the middle of the living room. There really is no need to actually move furniture out of the room unless you're painting the ceiling or floors. We just made enough space near the walls for painting.

I wiped down the walls, removed the electrical outlet face plates and switch covers, and then I taped the nails and hangers from the gallery wall. Since I just put the gallery wall up, I didn't want to take out all the hardware just to paint. So I taped it off. Worked out quite well.

I also taped around the curtain hardware rather than removing it from the wall. Since it is screwed to the wall, removing the screws and then trying to replace them may lead to a not-so-sturdy hold. And while I prefer to 'cut in' around the trim and ceiling, I did cover the tops of the blinds bracket with tape, just in case I dripped. We paid too much for those blinds to get paint all over them. And while I could have removed the blinds, they were heavy and Kyle was at work...

My most difficult challenge was the new office board. Since I screwed it into the wall, I didn't want to remove it for the same reason as the curtain hardware. So I rigged up a system. I propped the board up on a  floating shelf on a step stool... The floating shelf was made by my dad and will soon be on the wall somewhere in our house... until then it's handy.

I covered the board with a trash bag to protect it from paint...

I taped the bag to the board, but then I ran another strip of tape on the underside where I thought it might be impossible to control a paint brush.

 Taped up the hinges and we were ready to go.

 Supplies ready. Lucky us we have friends that paint too. We bought the new canvas drop cloth from Lowe's and the Premium XL Tight Spots 2" Angle Short Handle brush I got from Sherwin Williams for less than $4 with tax (recommended here).  Everything else was borrowed from a friend: roller, extension pole for roller, roller cover, paint tray, and even the handy paint bucket. The blue tape was sitting on a shelf in my dining room. And I didn't end up using any of the other stuff.

We got our paint mixed at Lowe's in Valspar's Ultra. It's low odor and zero VOC, and it was decently priced. I bought two gallons and ended up using about 1.2 gallons by the time the job was done. We had the paint matched to Benjamin Moore's Moonshine (and I love it!).

I moved the furniture and got my supplies on Friday night so I was ready to go Saturday morning. Saturday I remembered I needed to remove the electrical covers and tape the various challenges, so by the time I actually started painting it was about 10 in the morning.

I rolled on the walls and cut in on the edges. Since it was just me painting I made sure to alternate the cutting in with the rolling quite frequently to keep a wet edge. You don't really want to paint all the trim in an entire room and then go back and roll. I preferred overlapping brush with roller (painting the edges first then rolling and filling it in), rather than rolling a spot and then painting the edges. I felt like I was messing up the rolled on paint when I did roller then brush, because when I brushed back over trying to paint the edges it got sticky... does that even make sense?

With our fancy popcorn ceilings (lol) I was careful cutting in. I've never had great luck with tape and popcorn ceilings.

About 9 hours, two eating breaks, 1 coat, and 1 touch up coat later; I was left with this. Yes it took me a long time, but I'm a little meticulous and a little too OCD to have someone else painting with me. And we have carpet... Crazy, I know. 

 Although it's subtle, it really makes the trim pop. See around the doors where the white trim meets the now gray walls?

 I love it. It makes the room feel years newer. Fresh, updated, ours.

I especially like how the new paint makes the curtains stand out. They look extra white and crisp.

No really, I took a closeup of the curtains...

Great day. Super relaxing for me. And now I just sit in the living room sometimes staring at the walls. Smiling.

Go paint a room. It feels incredible. And it's not as hard as you think...

Happy Monday.