In May of 2017, I took a week off work to paint the living room a deep navy blue (Gene does not paint – that is a Stephanie job in our marriage, so there is no “we” in painting. He has other strengths.). It is a large room, full of high ceilings and difficult walls to reach with a brush and a stepladder. Painting it was arduous, and I was over it almost as soon as I started.
Learning from our mistakes
When I decided to paint it again, this time in a neutral, “prospective home buyers will love this” light gray we learned from my headlong dive into the project from nine years ago. I broke the room up into three sections and tackled them over the course of several months. This was especially necessary since, this time, I was painting the woodwork in addition to the walls.
In Week 84 I painted the stairwells and railings. Sometime between Weeks 79 and 78 I tackled the fireplace and most of the living room. And last week, I finally tackled the east wall. I left it for last because it runs from the front door to the back of the house. It also has the most woodwork to paint, with small alcoves with doors to several rooms. It is also where the tv is mounted, and who wants to move the tv until you absolutely have to?
Painting honey oak woodwork
The first alcove on that wall is made up almost entirely of woodwork. Painting woodwork is tedious and requires a ton of patience. It also requires the right tools. Early on, in Week 84 when I painted the stairwell, I took the time to sand every inch of woodwork before priming.
But when I painted the fireplace, I did some testing and determined that, with the right primer, I didn’t need to sand first. Zinsser BIN Primer saved me a TON of time! I am happy to report that even after the wear and tear of the kid standing on the fireplace hearth almost every day, it is still free of chips (although not free of dirt).
Thanks to this amazing primer, I probably saved a full day of sanding in this alcove:
Painting baseboards
When I first considered painting all of the woodwork, I had planned on removing all of the baseboards, painting them, and reattaching them. In fact, when I painted the bedroom upstairs, Gene and I pulled the baseboards off and numbered them (so we would know which order they went back in).
When I started painting the living room, I knew I couldn’t remove the wood around the fireplace; I was going to need a plan for painting it in place, while not painting the carpet. After some research on YouTube, Gene and I learned that blue painter’s tape wedged between the edge of the carpet and the woodwork served as a barrier, allowing me to paint the woodwork and leave the carpet untouched. Another time saver!
Now the hardest part of the painting is behind us. We have three bedrooms left to paint, but those will be simple compared to the behemoth of woodwork and vaulted ceilings that we just tackled!
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