Painting the Master Bedroom

So we decided to repaint the master bedroom, after staring unhappily at the baby blue nursery color that I put up last January.

 The Baby Blue Color that had to go.

To pick a new color, I decided to swing by our local paint shop instead of the usual big box store. This decision was actually kind of difficult. In our last house, we would buy paint from whatever store we happened to be in at the time, so that each room's paint was from a different place. It was a disaster when we needed to do touch ups, trying to remember which store sells which kind of paint.

When we bought this house, I was actually really excited to go to one store and get like 10 gallons of paint for the whole house. The problem is, the store we picked is way out of town. Because it's such a long drive (1.5 hours), we avoid going as much as possible. When we picked the original bedroom paint, we didn't want to bother with paint samples which would involve another trip to the store, so we rushed into the original color decision. It's also not a store that specializes in paint, so I think it has fewer color options. When we were last there, I got paint chips and just didn't like any of the color choices. So all in all, not a great place to have bought all of the paint for the house.

Embracing my city life, I finally opted to check out a local paint shop that has many more color options and is located only a few blocks from home.  In an abundance of caution, we picked up a bunch of paint chips and then bought 5 paint samples. After staring at the multi-colored wall for days in a variety of lights, we finally decided on a new smoky blue/grey color. So now one room will be from one paint store while the rest of the house from another-- [unless I repaint everything else].

Step 1. Remove old phone lines, scrape trim, and caulk.
When phone lines were installed in our house, they did it the crappy way by running lots and lots of wire across the floor and moldings and stapling it in place. Since we can't even get it hooked up (and wouldn't want to anyway), I'm pulling it all out. Unfortunately, lots of it is caulked in place, so as I pull, I have to scrape the old caulk out, and recaulk as I go. [This step really made me think about the fact that houses outlive technology trends, so you should install things carefully (I'm looking at you, Iphone jacks in the wall that now don't fit the newest phone model)].

before with phone lines- after being caulked

Step 2. Replace outlets.
While making the trim pretty, I decided to replace the old black outlets. This is theoretically very easy to do. You just shut off the power at the circuit breaker (*super important step*), pull out the existing outlet, remove each of the existing wires and attach to the new outlet in whatever way they were attached to the old outlet. Then screw in to the wall and replace the cover.

The things that make this actually rather difficult to do are:
a) once you turn off the circuit breaker, all the lamps that are on that circuit go out too. In a room that doesn't get a lot of natural light, this means you need to pull out the trusty camping headlamp to see.
b) old wires are tough. They don't want to bend easily, so getting them on and off of the outlets is a little tricky, and forcing them back in the wall takes some serious effort (ie, squishing, shoving, and forcing angrily).


Step 3. Paint Trim.
Since I recaulked and the trim was pretty scuffy- I needed to repaint it. Painting trim is miserable work because a) there's a lot of it, b) it's super slow and tedious, and c) it hardly looks any different. The paint I'm using is brighter than the old color, so it looks crisper and covers old dings and scrapes. Unfortunately it's so much lighter that it needs two coats. [so much for a quick fix.]

painted and caulked trim

Step 4. Edge & Roll the walls.
Once the trim is dry, I edge. I prefer using a 2 inch slanted brush. I like to edge and roll at the same time to minimize moving my ladder and drop cloth around. I slowly work my way around the room, and then come back at the end for touch ups. Unfortunately, the new color wet is almost the same shade as the old color dry- so it's really hard to tell what has and hasn't been painted until it dries. That meant I had lots of touchups to do.

All done- looking greyer than it should.

 

A better representation of the smoky-blue color and bright white trim

 

Still lots to do in this room, but definitely feeling cozier.

Total Time = 1 week

Active Time = 10 hours

Total Cost = $50 for paint & supplies and new outlets