When I last left you fine folk, I was mudding and sanding. I finished that (except for the office) thru the week and yesterday started painting the bedroom.
As a refresher, the bedroom when I bought the house was a turquise
Then I painted over that with a milder Honolulu Blue, knowing that I would be tearing out walls later so just hoping to tone down the brightness, but without the use of very expensive coverage paint. It didn't work as well as I hoped, but it was better than nothing.
With the new walls in, and not much of the Honolulu Blue paint leftover from last year, I thought it was time to really think about the color I wanted. As usual, I thought I was going to default to an off-white. That has always been my choice. But then I though that I really wanted something that would make the room more cozy and den like. As a bedroom, it doesn't need to be bright and airy. Plus, with the bay window, it gets plenty of natural light so could support a darker color.
I went to the big box store that starts with H during lunch and studied color samples. I knew I wanted a bluish tint, but darker, with more gray. After agonizing over the samples for 10 minutes (I know, a lot of people think that is a snap decision, but for me that is a short time for something so mundane as paint or carpeting or linoleum), I decided on Oxford Blue - a steel grey with blue undertones.
I also went with the Bahr self priming paint and let me tell you, that paint choice was a great decision as it is nice and thick and covers even bare sheetrock well with only one coat (going to do two coats anyway). The flash lightened up the color a bit, but when I try to darken it by computer, it turns it more purple - which it definitely isn't.
As you can tell by this side-by-side, the old turquise bled thru the Honolulu Blue over time, which I had not fully realized until I looked at the picture taken last November.
Notice in the above picture the crown molding on the right hand wall is still there. This is where the story takes a turn to the obvious (if you think about my luck). I removed the molding so I could paint beneath it. In the process, areas of paint started flaking and chipping. So, I figured I would scrape those portions down, mud/sand, then it would be ready for painting when I got to it.
Yeah, uh, huh. Not so fast. that would be wallpaper that started stripping down the wall. Damn. I had forgotten when I had originally painted that it sounded like wallpaper. However, in all the walls I have taken down (exterior and stairway), there hasn't been any wallpaper (except the mural in the living room), so I figured it was just the surface of the sheetrock was old and delaminating. Wrong answer! So, I spent some time stripping off what came off easily (the picture is from early in the process).
And, of course, that isn't sheetrock underneath but a wallboard, which probably means I will be papering over. The good news is at least the wallboard is in pretty decent shape, so I won't be replacing it. Now I need to get wallpaper stripper to get the stubborn stuff off.
Meanwhile, I had White Chocolate paint left over from when I painted the kitchen and living room last November, so I started painting the living room. The leftover paint was a cheaper Coronado, so I dind't expect it to cover nearly as well as the Bahr, and it didn't (although you can't really tell in the picture).
Then I went to the local store and got some Benjamine Moore Premium (the Valspar was so expensive it was rediculous - about $20 more per gallon than the Bahr, so I wasn't touching that stuff). Well, that was better than the Coronado, but still runny and under-coverage compared to the Bahr. That is okay, I'll just put on more coats - which will use the same amount of paint, just more effort and time. Next time I buy paint, I know what brand I am going with.
And to top off the evening, I did some polyeurathaning of the living room trim work, which I had sanded down and stained over the last couple of weeks. I'm doing that in the craft room, so it will be a while before I get to painting that room most likely.
Hpe everyone has had a more entertainning weekend than I have had so far - but at least I feel like I have been productive.
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