When Rob and I move into our house, the walls are going to be white. We had the option of having the builder paint it for us before we move in but the additional cost was more than we wanted to pay and we could only choose one color. So yeah. That wasn’t going to work for us. Since we’re not too keen on white, we’ve decided that we’re going to paint the whole darn house ourselves. We decided to get some practice by painting an accent wall in our apartment. !!!
After some online research, we chose Benjamin Moore paint and a few weeks ago, we went to our local Ace Hardware to pick up paint chips in different shades of blue and gray. We taped the chips to our wall, made sure to consider the colors in various lighting situations (day versus night), and ended up choosing an airy pale blue called mystical blue (don’t you love the name?).
Prepping and priming the wall took the longest.
We had to clean off the wall and tape the edges.
I was in charge of cutting in around the edges and corners (omg, this takes for-freaking-ever) while Rob rolled the wall.
Priming made it a really bright white. Ugh, it looks so ugly. Thank goodness it’s just the primer.
After the primer dried, we started painting! And compared to the primer, the paint went on so smooth and so FAST! The wall is about 95% done in the above pic. The blue is really subtle in the daylight.
Here’s the finished wall at night! See how the blue becomes a different shade?
That ONE wall took us about 5 hours. Not to mention the 2 trips we had to take to Ace because we didn’t buy enough primer and paint the first time. YIKES. I can’t even imagine how long it’ll take for us to paint our entire house. The wall’s definitely not perfect, though. We got lazy and didn’t tape off the ceiling so the edge work at the top of the wall is rough (I couldn’t keep my hand steady!). And there are a couple of small spots that don’t have enough paint. Oh, well. Overall we’re happy with it! 🙂
Nice job, it looks great! 🙂
How did I not notice this when I came over? Good job!
Nice! The color looks good! I wanted to paint the walls in our apartment, but we have tall ceilings, but it’s just SO much work. Then we’d have to repaint it when we move back to its original color. Anyway, there’s this thing called washi tape and Dave and I plan on doing an accent wall in our living room using it (no residue and it’s cheap!) Maybe a diamond pattern, like this: http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2010/01/temporary-wallpaper-alternative.html
I love looking at before and afters. Can’t wait for more. Are you seeing more progress on the house?
Yeah, we have to repaint that wall back to the original color too but I figure that’s just more practice for us! Luckily, our ceilings aren’t too high and we have a pretty tall ladder.
The washi tape looks so cool! I love how it can be subtle or bold depending on the color. You should do it! And post a pic so I can see the results. 🙂 I just started reading Little Green Notebook too — I’ve been obsessed with home decor and DIY blogs ever sinced we contracted the house. Hehe.
We visited the house over the weekend and the drywall is going up and the exterior is getting started. I took a pic! I’ll post it soon. It’s nice to know you’re interested and I’m not just boring everyone who reads my blog. LOL.
Diesel looks so sweet in the last photo. He’s like “ta da!”
You won’t have to hurry through painting when it’s your own home. I mean, you can take it one room at at time as needed.
I know what you mean! I painted my room last spring and some of the tape is still there! Lol