Painting Progress

It's been a productive weekend!  After finishing up the dining room on Saturday, I kept going full steam ahead and finished painting the piano room yesterday afternoon.  And I'm not gonna lie -- as much as I really do love painting, by 5 o'clock yesterday evening I was completely DONE.  I don't know what the deal is with the texture of the walls in our house, but they were a pain in the you know what to fully cover.

The finished dining room.  Trim and Wainscoting -- Simply White by Benjamin Moore, Walls -- Mindful Gray by Sherwin Williams.

That being said, I couldn't be happier with the results.  I really, really love how the colors look on the wall, and an added bonus is that almost every kid has commented on how much they love the color in the piano room.  {It's Dovetail by Sherwin Williams and I'm in love, too.}  There's nothing like a fresh coat of paint to really spruce up the place.

 Ugh -- that trim color.

I haven't really put the rooms all back together yet, but I figured I'd post a little of the progress now and once everything is set up I can put up some really great before and after shots.  So, even though Grace reminds me continually that I'm not a professional, I've painted a room or two in my life and I'm happy to share all my secrets here on the blog.  {Disclaimer -- I am NOT a professional.}

 So much better!  Trim -- Simply White by Benjamin Moore, Walls -- Dovetail by Sherwin Williams.

First of all, I'm super lazy, so I do as little prep work as I possibly can.  Like seriously, as little as I can possibly get away with.  There were only a few things I bothered with taping -- the floor under the baseboards so I could go faster while painting the trim and a few wall edges that needed a sharp line dividing rooms because they were different paint colors.

I was so aggravated -- I literally ran out of paint with THIS much left to paint.  Thankfully, Scott came to my rescue and went back over to the paint store to get another gallon.

Second, I really do think that the paint used makes a big difference.  I've been going with the Sherwin Williams Emerald line in a Matte finish for the last few years.  I feel like I'm almost always able to get away with one coat of paint when using it, and I really think that if you're choosing Sherwin Williams colors, they'll come out much better with their paints and specific color formulas.

While painting, I go back and forth between rolling the walls and cutting in at the top and bottom with a brush.  In general, you want to keep a "wet edge" for blending in the cut parts and the rolled parts, but I noticed this time around that with this particular paint it didn't really matter -- there were no visible brush lines anywhere even though there were plenty of times when the paint had completely dried along the edge before I got to the next section.

It may have taken a bit longer than I would have liked, but I'm so happy with how it all turned out.  Now I just need to take a little break before I tackle the family room/kitchen.  I've already decided to hire out the front hall/entry way and upstairs hall to actual professionals, but before I do that, I have to figure out what color I definitely want to use.  I'm 98% sure I'm going to use the Mindful Gray for the entry way and halls, and I was PLANNING on using the same for the family room, but then I decided that the undertones in our couches clash a bit with the undertones in the paint color and I don't know if I should use it.  For now, I'm back to the drawing board, but I can't take TOO long, because now that I've got a couple of rooms done, I just want to do it all!  Hahaha.  :)