How not to paint . . .

Today, I'm going to focus on one particular area of our new home that I mentioned (here) is an all-consuming eye sore.  Remember this?

It looks nice from a distance right?  Here's an even better picture of the previous owner's setup:

All those neat little cubbies for all your electronic toys . . . Nice you say?  I took the shelves out to thoroughly clean it and this is what I was left with:

There are multiple things that went wrong with this wall hogger.  They painted the entertainment center with the REMOVABLE shelves intact, which made them quite difficult to remove since paint was stuck to them.  Can you see the brushstrokes?  

This is what happens when you attempt to use white latex paint on laminate.  If you are going to paint (even if it is with the wrong type of paint), don't be lazy.  Go ahead, paint the whole thing.  Take all of your little electronic toys out and outlets then PAINT!  Don't leave this behind:

Above all else, do not allow your little four legged hairball coughing felines to walk on wet paint all the while embedding their forever shedding hair to dry in the paint for some poor unsuspecting future homeowner to find while scrubbing out the dirt and dust you left behind. 

Did you really think this post would not include me ranting about cats and cat hair?  When I'm done cleaning, scrubbing, and sanding cat hair, I won't blog about it anymore.  Until then, just remember the source:

Courtesy of the previous owners- I give credit where credit is due

He is one of many . . . don't be fooled.

Stripes

So, I finally took the plunge and painted stripes in a bonus room off of my daughters' bedroom.  I consider this to be quite bold and is definitely something I have never done before.  Try not to stare at the pictures too long because you might capture a glimpse of all the spots I need to touch up with paint.  No one ever told me how difficult it is to paint stripes on highly textured walls.  Let me just share that this project certainly was filled with plenty of opportunities to learn.

  Benjamin Moore's Super White and Sherwin Williams' Dragon Fruit

 

 

Here's the view from their bedroom painted in Sherwin Williams' Cloudless:

There is another room just off of this bonus room that will be their playroom :

This is painted in Sherwin Williams' Gleeful.

The girls are really excited about their new space, which makes me happy . . . mission accomplished.

Time after time . . .

Every time I look at the calendar, I am reminded of how quickly this month is going by.  All of our free time is spent wiping down walls, patching holes, priming, then painting.  When people offer to help us move, I laugh and say, "That's the easy part!"  Choosing the paint is also no easy task, but that is nothing compared to deciding on the flooring.  My head is spinning just thinking about it.  I think I will just show you some updates.

This is a picture of a wall in the master bedroom.  

Step 1- wash walls, baseboards, blinds, and ceiling fan.

Step 2 - Patch and Prime

Just ignore the tacky little box on the wall; more on that later.

Step 3- Paint walls, baseboards, trim, and doors

Benjamin Moore's Ice Cube Silver

 

Step 4- Repeat in the office

Benjamin Moore's Silver Gray

  

 Repeat in the girls' bedroom

Sherwin Williams' Cloudless

Repeat in Playroom 1 . . .

Sherwin Williams' Gleeful

. . . and soon to complete in Playroom 2

Yes, I'm embracing color and STRIPES!  This bonus room off of their bedroom will have some Dragon Fruit stripes.  We'll see how that will go.  

We still have one more bedroom left, three bathrooms, the living room, and kitchen.  There's more, but I don't want to think about it.