Let's Talk About Paint, Baby

Good afternoon! It's a bright day here in Austin; we were greeted by the sun shining through the THREE windows in our new bedroom. I won't go on about this for too long, but we had four windows total in our last apartment, now there are four windows in our kitchen alone – eleven total in the whole place – so you can imagine my excitement and perhaps forgive my momentary gloaty-ness.

But let's talk about paint, shall we? As I mentioned last week, Oliver and I painted up a storm before we moved our stuff into the house and slept on cots for four days in order to get it done with the least amount of stuff in our way.

Sorry for the blurry photo. It makes the sleeping arrangement seem all the more depressing, doesn't it? I'm kidding; it wasn't depressing, it was exciting! Just a bit uncomfortable :)

Saturday was the big moving day, and Oliver's parents helped up load the truck in Tyler, then unload in Austin. Let me tell you, they are MACHINES. We loaded up in about an hour (faster than the moving guys we hired in New York, mind you) and unloaded in less time on the other side. It was tremendously helpful that we had gotten the bulk of the painting done before moving in. I highly recommend this strategy for your next move, if it is at all possible.

Here's the living room and bedroom before we started painting:

Living room: looking toward the front door


Living room: looking toward the back door


Bedroom

First things first: protecting the worksite is so important. It is also so not interesting or fun. Floors come first. We spread canvas tarps borrowed from Oliver's parents on the floors, but you can get disposable plastic drop cloths at any hardware store. Contractors often use brown craft paper on the floors, which I think is a great solution, as it lets you precisely tape close to the walls but is thin enough to allow you to accurately paint the baseboards (the canvas tarps are pretty thick and bunchy near the walls, making baseboards difficult to access.

Before any painting can begin, remove all outlet covers, switch plates, ceiling pendants, fan blades, vent covers, towel bars, etc, so you get your color in every crevasse without getting paint on the covers themselves (unless that's part of the design scheme). We use 3M/Scotch blue painter's tape, like most people on earth. All holes left by nails, screws, tacks or anything else that leaves holes should be filled with lightweight spackle. For any large holes, use a heavier-weight plaster.

A dimmer, all safe and sound under some tape

The bedroom, spackled up and protected – no fan blades, fan stump all wrapped up and warm:


Since the walls in our house started out pretty dark, we had to prime them first. We bought a five gallon bucket of Valspar primer from Lowe's (remember to ask the store clerk to shake up any paint you buy to ensure that it's mixed properly), and once all the protections were done, we got to steppin'. We mixed the paint a bit more with wood sticks, then I used a smaller container to carry around with me as I edged along the baseboards, corners, door trims and ceilings. Oliver rolled the walls and ceilings.


The ceilings were pretty shabby, so we painted those with Valspar Ultra White in flat. Two coats on the ceilings and two coats on the walls before we were ready to paint with color.

The living room primed and ready for some color

Make sure you don't miss a spot on walls or ceilings by using a light, clip-able work lamp or another type of construction light that you can hold up and scan around the room. The worst thing is finishing, cleaning up, then noticing you missed a spot. We used this nifty hanging light, in addition to bell lights.


Oliver's parents let us borrow their brush spinner, which is now on the top of our must-buy list. You stick your clean, wet brush or roller pad into it, take it outside or lower it into the sink, and pull the spinner doo-hickey about ten times and voila! Your brush or pad is very dry. This makes using it again SO easy because it takes out all dripping potential. When water stays in the brush or pad, the next time you use it, the paint is runny and things get messy quickly. Get a spinner.

For edging work, it is important to have a quality brush. All this painting equipment really starts to add up, so its tempting to get the cheapest of everything, but resist the urge to cheap out on brushes; a good one will last for a long time. About five years ago, we invested in two high quality brushes that we take care of, and they've served us well. Oliver, edging the top of the wall in the bedroom – this job was too high-pressure for me. I knew I'd get "Plum Prelude" on the freshly painted white ceiling, so he stepped in like a champ:

A quality precision brush was imperative in this case, too, because our landlord designed and built the very solid, very custom wood front door, and if we messed it up with sloppy painting or erroneous brush strokes due to poor brush quality, we would have ruined the door.

We did fully protect the door with plastic sheeting before painting the ceilings and walls

We also bought nicer Wooster roller pads, available at Lowe's, that have plastic in the center, meaning you can wash and re-use them, which saves money and materials in the end. This time, we used  heavy duty roller trays from Oliver's parents, so we washed them out between uses, but when you're in a small place with not a lot of sink options, we prefer to use trays with disposable tray liners, so we don't have to spend a lot of time cleaning them out between uses. It makes things move a little faster.

Keeping a clean worksite makes everything easier. Push everything into the center of the room, but don't let things collect too much.

In the bathroom, we had to spend a lot of time on protections before getting to work. Covering the sink and the toilet is a little gross (who likes getting so close to the back of a toilet in a rental?), but worth it in the end, when you have no paint spots on your fixtures, and completely removing them isn't an option.


We got a tiny roller to be used specifically behind the toilet and around sink valves and pipes. I highly recommend this – these hard to reach spots are still visible, so getting paint coverage is important. I don't have a decent picture of the bathroom yet, and Oliver is working in there right now, putting up some shelves, but I'll tell you the bathroom looks bright and pristine!

We still have lots of work to do, but we will be able to comfortably live here while we do it – and we're thrilled with the progress we've made already!

Current state of the living room – at least we can sit in it!


It's a little cramped right now, but our dining area is fully functional!


The bedroom, with our make-shift roman shades ala trash bags



See that lump on the bed? It's Oliver...shhhh.