M and I painted our living room this past weekend. Here’s a before and after:
So, how did we get there? Well, when we moved into our house in 2008, it had really awful brown walls that made our couches fade into the background:
In addition, the paint job was just BAD. They clearly only used one coat of paint, but it wasn’t enough because there were streaks where the white undercoat was still visible. Just a sloppy, lazy paint job. I really think that if you’re going to do something, you need to do it right. So, we figured it was time for a new paint job.
But first, I had to spackle the bajillion holes in the walls:
Who the frig makes this many holes and then paints OVER them? How lazy can you get? Argh! Spackle, spackle.
Next up: primer, woohoo! (Sorry the pic is so gray; I took it with my iPhone before the sun really came out.) We used Valspar High Hiding Primer, which is really good, but since the brown was so dark we had to use two coats.
Two walls primed, but at this point, we ran out of primer and had to go back to Lowe’s for more.
I can’t say enough about how important it is to tape off the edges! (Yet something else the previous owners didn’t do.) We used Frogtape, which is apparently treated with something special to ensure sharp lines. We were kind of skeptical at first because it felt like regular masking tape, but were very impressed once we removed it. Out of four walls, including the base boards, ceiling, and two doors, we only had to touch up two small spots after removing the tape.
And we have blue walls! woohoo! We used Valspar Signature Colors with high-def something or other, eggshell finish, in the color Surf’s Up.
This is pretty much what our living room looked like all weekend. We had pushed the furniture to the center of the room and covered everything with plastic. The floor was covered with plastic, too. We were very careful and managed not to get paint on the furniture or carpet. When I took this pic, we had one wall left (the wall with the windows)–but we had to pause because we ran out of paint. Arrrrrgh. Time for another trip to Lowe’s. We didn’t need that much, so we only bought a quart to finish the job.
And here’s the finished product! I’m so happy with the result. Our furniture doesn’t blend into the walls anymore, and the room overall is just so much lighter. I really hated how gloomy the brown was, but now, it’s light in the room, even at night time.
This was my first time painting and I thought it would be easy…haha. I mean, it was easy, but it was a lot of work–we dusted the walls, spackled/sanded spots, primed (two coats), taped off, and then painted the top coat. My feet were KILLING me by the time the work was done. I didn’t wear very good shoes for this, so as a result, my feet and back really suffered. We were constantly on our feet or bending/crouching to reach every spot. Again, it was a lot of work, but so worth it. Now I don’t hate sitting in this room. Plus, it’s easier to see my knitting or reading. 
Basically several cop cars and the forensics unit (??), which brought most (if not all) of the neighborhood into the streets. When I came home around 9, they were still out there–it was hard for me to get down the road to our street since some people were parked on the curb and one of the side streets is kind of narrow anyway, so I was driving really slowly and trying not to sideswipe anybody…M had gone out earlier and talked to a cop, who said there was a gang fight earlier and there had been some shooting. OMG. Great, we’ve moved into the ghetto.
Actually, it’s an office/yarn room and the other half will be M’s to put all his workout-y things. But I love my half, it’s probably my favorite part of the house! The previous owners used this as a baby room (they have a boy, kind of obvious by the baby blue paint). But I liked the wall color so much that we decided to leave it up. My bookcase and cabinet are from Target. The yarn cabinet is actually sold as a china cabinet, but I thought it was perfect for yarn since it has doors. I’m terrified of getting a moth infestation, so the doors protect my yarn while simultaneously displaying it all! 
