We’ve mentioned that our house is in need of some pretty serious updating (which, basically, is why this site exists), and probably the main reason it needs so much updating is that we’re only the second owners of the house. The man who built the house died (in like his 90′s) and his daughter sold us the house. So I imagine that the guy had the house just how he liked it and wasn’t worried about fashionability or resale value. Prime example: what was described as the master bedroom but is actually a TV room for us. Things about this room we were not fond of: blue walls (like Smurf-blue), a lack of molding and baseboards, and a window unit AC. So we’ve come to understand and appreciate the window AC (details about which aren’t really germane here), but the blueness had to go. One of the first projects for the house was painting and installing baseboards and molding in this backroom. Here’s what we did.
before
After we picked out a few different possible paint colors at Lowe’s and found one we liked, we primed the walls. (At this point, it’s probably best to mention that we finished this project a while back, and so some details I’ll probably seem vague about. I just don’t remember quite as much of the specifics as I’d like at this point. But the overall gist of the project I should be able to explain.) We used a coat of Killz to prime the wall for the new paint and also to try to cover up the nasty blue I mentioned before that you can see above. Priming was easily the worst part of the painting process. The primer is thick, and it doesn’t stretch very far between roller dips in the pan. Man, it was a pain. But then the walls were ready for paint. We let the primer dry overnight before getting on to the actual paint.
post primer; pre paint; outlet cover free
The next day, we put down garbage bags to keep the carpet from getting paint on it, even though the carpet’s not really something we were trying to preserve. Then on to painting.
A couple things about the painting:
1. For the walls, we used Valspar 5004-3B Carolina Inn Club Aqua (drinkin’ w/ our pinkies out) from the National Trust for Historic Preservation series. For the molding, baseboards, and trim, we used Valspar 7006-1 Homestead Resort Jefferson White (which I’m not even going to touch) from the same preservation series. Good paints all.
2. Painting, relative to priming, is like bribing your dog. I.e., stupid easy.
We put a couple of coats of the paint on the walls, let it dry, then taped up the borders of the closets and windows and painted the trim with the white paint. Ain’t nothin’ to it. This dried for a handful of days. Not because it needed to, but because we had other things to do (e.g., work) before we found time to hang molding and baseboards.
Oh, man, the molding and baseboards (now M&B, for brevity’s sake).
Before we could put in the M&B, we had to cut them. (Actually the first thing was to prime and paint the M&B. So we did that first.) This cutting involved a miter saw (which we borrowed from Kristen’s dad), basic tape measure skills (which, well, I own a tape measure), and 6th-grade-level math and problem-solving skills (I ought to be ashamed).
First time I’d ever used a miter saw, and basically the first time I’d ever even heard of one. So here’s what it does/why it’s necessary for M&B: the miter saw, at first, looks like a circular saw that you kind of drop on top of what you’re cutting, but then it also swivels so you can cut at angles. The kinds of angles that you have to cut to get two pieces of M&B to meet in/at a corner. Let’s just say that there are six (6) corners total in the room (so accounting for both M&B, that’s 12 total joints (24 cuts)), and I cut at least twice that many times.
Yes, measuring and cutting wood to fit well in/at a corner is something that takes a pretty substantial amount of trial and error and expletives.
Once I got all the pieces cut to the right lengths and angles, hanging them was also stupid easy. I hung the molding with just a hammer and nails. For the baseboards, I used a nail gun (a recent gift from the pop-in-law), and let me just tell you–go get a nail gun and an air compressor. Trust me.
And so at the end of it all, our room looks like this:
baseboards, green walls, and molding--a completely different room
The room now has a nice, calming green instead of the offensive (according to Kristen when she was reminded of the blue in the picture) Smurf blue. Now if we can just do something about the circa ’85 white ceiling fan w/ gold trim and blue gingham couches. Seriously, can you see that gold?
