Paint All The Things!

I know I know, all I do is paint. But I have to say I feel like paint is the handiest tool in any DIYer's belt. I promise we will do an actual renovation at some point, hopefully this summer(I'm looking at you master bath). 

So this week I've decided to paint one of the doors in our kitchen. It's the glass door leading into the sunroom upstairs. At first I wanted to strip it and re stain it but after a while I felt like it needed a little more contrast. Paint it is. Here is where we started. 

Here is after lots of paint and new floors...where we left you last.  

Better shot of the doors. Eventually I will paint the solid door. I want to wait until summer when I can leave it open since it leads out to the garage. 

And after!!

Since our appliances are black I felt like it would balance the room out nice to add a little black. I used the color Carbon by Behr. I used an interior enamel paint in semi gloss. Sticky hands are constantly touching this door so it needed to be durable and wipeable. I also plan on painting/staining the stairs behind (and maybe add a runner). So much to do!

I ended up taking the tape off and just painting the glass. Its almost always easier for me to just scrape it off after. 

It gets a little better with each small upgrade. 

Taking a trip to Ikea next weekend! Hoping to pick up a couple of lack shelves and maybe replace that light fixture over the table. We'll see. 

Happy Friday!

New (painted) Bedroom Furniture

A month after we got married we went to buy a bed (we were sleeping on an air mattress) and ended up leaving with a bedroom set. It has now moved with us 6 times and it was showing it. Also while it was really nice it wasn't necessarily my style. We planned on getting rid of it but never pulled the trigger. Finally I decided that before we get rid of it I would at least try and paint it to see if that would save us a trip to the furniture store. I am a terrible shopper. I have really bad buyers remorse and the only time I buy anything is when Brian is there to force me. It's obnoxious. Anyway, back to the bedroom set. 

Here it is in our Georgia home. It didn't look bad in this space. 

And yikes here it is in our bedroom in Maine..before painting the walls. So dark and dreary. 

I thought it would look better once I painted the walls but it was not good. The floors and lighting down there screams for lighter furniture. 

The process of painting took a few days. I would do a coat in the evening, taking around 2 hours per coat. I used Kilz primer (2 coats) and Benjamin Moore Advance in Simply White (2 coats). Before I started I used a liquid deglosser instead of sanding. Saves a lot of time and mess. Also I used a 4 inch foam roller which I find to be key for that smooth finish. 

It's like new!

We took off the foot board to fit it in this space in our room and I painted the head board a charcoal grey. I had originally planned on doing it all white but I knew the room would have a lot of lighter hues so I chose dark for a couple accents. Plus it matches the dust ruffle which is nice. When painting the headboard, and Brian's dresser, I used chalk paint. This was my first time using it and I can say I am a believer. It was so easy to work with, required no prep work, and dried with no brush marks. I ended up using a polyurethane over the top. I love the way it turned out and it was much easier and significantly faster than the rest of the furniture. 

When I was painting the big mirror I didn't tape it off. I usually do that with windows and then use a razor to scrape of the paint. Well because it's the advance line it hardens and it took forever to scrape it off. I definitely should have taped it. Hindsight...

We also got a new rug that covers the bulk of the open space. We ended up getting a carpet remnant and having it bound. The rug is actually 12X8 (this room is really long) and it cost under $150. I wanted close to a linen color for the rug (a little nod to sand) and I think it really makes the room look much cleaner. 

When I was painting I let Amelia "paint" the door. So that looks really great right now. Eventually I will paint the doors but I am waiting for summer. Our closet is unfinished and gets freezing so the door has to stay closed all the time in the winter. 

The rug actually looks darker in the pictures. It's a white/linen berber carpet. The lighting in here is really terrible so these pictures are the best I can do. We've come so far in here. I can't wait to cover up that amazing vinyl tile. In the meantime I feel like I have new bedroom furniture! 

Happy Saturday!