Painting the living room

I have promised a tutorial on what we did in this room. The flooring tute will be tomorrow, so I thought I’d do the painting process today. And, boy, what a process is was!
We sprayed, we rolled, we trimmed, we painted by hand, we taped off, we bought too much paint, we inhaled too many fumes.

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The walls were rough cut wood hung horizontally. We didn’t hate this room before. It just wasn’t “us”. We also love light. This room has 6 windows, but all the light was soaked up by all the dark wood.

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The ceiling was also wood. I originally planned to leave it alone. Luckily, Dustin talked me out of it. I LOVE the painted plank results! You can also see the original 5 lights in the photos above. We did four recessed lights (that were done before we painted) and a new ceiling fan that was a finishing touch.

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We borrowed a sprayer and Dustin sprayed on Kilz. We used 5 gallons of Kilz on the walls and ceiling. We made sure all windows and doors were sealed up with tape and plastic. We also pulled out the face masks that we have so Dustin wouldn’t suffocate in the sealed off room.

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Then, it was time for the ceiling. It got a light coat of primer sprayer on it and then the hand painting began.

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See all those cracks between the planks? They are about 4 inches apart and run the entire length of the room. Each one had to be done with a brush. The ceiling got one rolled and brushed coat and Dustin picked up the sprayer again to spray the walls.

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Because of their rough texture and the grooves that are between each plank on the walls, they were sprayed and then hand painted with a brush. Dustin sprayed the walls while I went behind him with a brush. Essentially, this room had every square inch of wall space painted by hand. The walls were so rough that the sprayer distributed the paint well, but wasn’t getting it into all the nooks, crannies, and cracks. Although it was a bit more work than expected, it went fairly quickly. And, the results are fantastic.
While the walls dried, we gave the ceiling a second coat with the brushes to touch up and make sure it was all covered well. Then, the walls got another coat of sprayed on paint followed by a paintbrush to even it, smooth it, and make sure knot holes were painted and rough patches were covered.

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Then, it was time for the part I dreaded the most: the windows.
I love to paint. I even ENJOY trimming with a paint brush. But, I hate prep work. Of everything we have done in this room, I dreaded the actual taping off of the glass more than anything! :)
They are also solid wood. They weren’t ugly. I had hoped that we could just leave them wood and paint only the trim around them. It was all taped up pretty tightly while we did the rest of the room. But, it needed to be done. So over the course of a few days, these got taped, primed, primed again, and then two coats of white. After I painted all 6 windows shut, Dustin got them opened and proceeded to paint them all shut again himself. Luckily, they are all free now, but what a pain! We were even careful!

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This has been one huge J.O.B! Just the paint alone completely changed the room. It is now bright, airy, and cozy.
Tomorrow, I’m posting how we did the floor. Dustin and I are sitting down in the morning to go over our materials list, the cost, and the steps to make sure that I include everything to show you how these two pictures really have have the same materials in them! :)

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