Painting was the easiest part of this project
Except spray painting the pegboard, file that under bad ideas.
I had decided to paint the pegboard to match the new color scheme, and while yes, it turned out beautifully, I will never subject my lungs to that again. This is when I learned that N95 masks don’t fit my face, and tons or particulates get underneath the nose and mouth part and actually get trapped, making them less effective for me then a bandanna. I was crying blue tears and nearly had to scrub my face raw that night to get it all off. Never again. The ceiling was a pain too, but they always are unless you have a paint sprayer.
Preparing the Room
The first part of any paint project is to prepare the room, protect anything that you don’t want to accidentally drip paint on. Well, there wasn’t much left in the room that wasn’t eventually getting painted or covered, so I didn’t have to do much there. Which is why you should always try to paint before you do flooring. While I couldn’t imagine how bad the spray paint would get everywhere, I knew it was going to be the part I wanted to do first. It took about four cans to get all the pegboard covered.
Painting the ceiling and walls
I started with the ceiling, since it is the hardest. Then moved onto the walls. It took me about three days to do the room entirely, one day for the pegboard, one day for the ceiling and half the walls and another day to finish up the other half of the walls. Then I was finally able to move in!
Some tips and tricks about painting
I always use primer, even if my paint is billed as a paint and primer. Particularly if I am painting new drywall, wood or over a darker color. Why? It’s cheaper than paint and on most surfaces you are going to struggle to get a nice even coat in one shot.
It is best to paint when the temperature is between 50-85 degrees and humidity is between 40%-70%. These are not conditions that happen often where I live so I just have to wait longer for my paint to dry and only do one fairly thin coat a day.
You don’t need fancy edgers, expensive rollers or brushes. Trust me the professionals don’t even use this stuff. Save your money for the paint.
Speaking of paint, buy the good stuff. For interiors anything that has a semi-gloss or gloss is going to be easier to wipe stains cleanly off of without harsh chemicals. (I’m looking at you toddler parents) If you are painting in a small space get the low or no VOC your lungs and nose will thank you. If you are painting something exterior, basically, buy the best paint you can afford and it will last longer.
After the painting was done I was finally able to put up some shelving and move back in!
My name is Alicia, and I do a lot of different kinds of projects. I sew, make jewelry, papercraft, and make a lot of homemade gifts. I also am very at home with power tools. Meaning that I take on a lot of home improvement projects by myself. I also make mistakes, which I notice most bloggers aren’t keen on showing when they do, but I will own them and show how I work around them and fix them