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| The second bedroom downstairs wasn't actually in too bad of shape in comparison to the rest of the house. The ceiling was in good condition and the walls are not too messed up. A previous owner had painted over wallpaper paste so large swaths of paint were flaking off. The floor needs refinishing. Like most of the window frames, there are screw and nail holes for over a dozen sets of mini blinds. | |
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Alyssa started by scrapping off all the flaking paint. Then she skim coated over the uneven surfaces and old nail holes. She got a bit carried away with skim coating and made a huge sandy mess. Her footprints lead you to and from the bedroom and she made the downstairs a dusty disaster. Colin removed the old baseboards. |
| The ceiling was in good condition (which is amazing considering the rest of the rooms on the first floor), so Alyssa just did a little patching and then painted it. She filled in all the holes on the window trim and door. The difference between the white primer and the dull, dirty grey trim was incredible. Colin rewired the room and installed new phone cables. Alyssa started painting the room (below), but didn't like the color (it doesn't look so bad in the picture, but it was a very dark gold). |
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The color (Martha Stewart's Rattan), didn't look anything like the swatch. So, Alyssa got a bit worried. What did the other colors she bought look like. So she painted a square of the living room color (again MS at Sherwin Williams) - Chopstick. Again, loved the swatch, but in reality, it had a lot of green in it. The other colors Alyssa had picked out, Sea Oats and Silt were also bad (should have know with a color like "silt") So, the search was on for the perfect living room color. Many pots of paint (special thanks to Ellen and Emily) and many little pots of paint later, we decided on Benjamin Moore Harp Strings, watered down to 50%. Here are the squares: |
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Here is what is up there (bigger swatches at least - some of the smaller
ones are repeats) Left Wall - Top row (left to right) is all
Benjamin Moore colors: Ambiance, Windham Cream, Weston Flax; Second row
all MS @ SW: Sea Oats, Chopstick, and Silt; Bottom row is BM Popcorn and
Barley. Above the Popcorn is MS K-Mart Butter Cream (which is
already in the upstairs hall). Right Wall - Left column (top to
bottom) is BM Goldtone, the vertical color is the Rattan, the tip small
is the Weston Flax and then the Harp Strings, and the bottom color is
Cream Yellow. The middle column is my Restoration Hardware
experiment (again - nothing like the swatches): Butter Cream, Butter and
Saffron. Below that is BM Lancaster White and Bone White (do those
look white to you?). Far right column: BM Harp Strings, Harp
Strings 50%, and Powder Sand (which was a test for the actual bedroom).
And on the piece of drywall on the floor is BM Soft Fern at 100%, 75%
and 50% (tests for the kitchen). Phew. Then Alyssa had to cover up her artwork with
two coats of primer. And now we buy little pots first. In the end, we went with Cornsilk for the living room, which is not up there. We painted this bedroom a Berh color - New Day Dew |
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Dad rented a sander from Home Depot and sanded the red oak floor in the second bedroom. |
