Craft Room Project: Recessed Area First Coats Of Paint

Today was a very busy and productive day.

Every shelf and divider came back out and got shaved down so that everything sits flush to the front of the space. That alone took some time, but it looked so much better after I finished. I’m really glad I took the time to make those adjustments.

I also had to go get the trim I needed for the upper shelf areas since I hadn’t originally planned on putting any trim inside this space and didn’t have any. That took some time away from me being able to get stuff done in the room, but it looks so much better having that in place. Trim is now under the very top board and under the top shelf, which gives that shelf a little more support.

Once those were put up, I spent a whole lot of time getting nail holes filled and all the corners and seams caulked up so it was ready to paint. Do you have any idea how much of a pain in the butt it is to try and caulk around that paneling? The grooves that create the “bead” effect make both caulking and painting SO much fun. Not.

I also had to take some time to clean up the massive amount of sawdust covering the floor. Between what has been produced from all the cutting and routering and what got kicked up when I had to sand down a couple of the shelves so they would paint cleanly, there was sawdust everywhere. I was afraid it would end up in the paint if I wasn’t very, very careful, so I had to stop to clean before I could paint.

Because every bit of this is bare wood, it is going to take a couple coats of paint to completely cover. So far, I’ve got one light coat around edges and another good coat over everything in the middle. I needed to see how well those grooves would cover with my roller before I decided how I needed to finish painting and if I’d need to do several coats along those with a brush instead. Thankfully, the roller hits them well enough I don’t have to do that.

Tomorrow, I’ll do another really good coat around all the edges as well as painting all the other shelves and dividers so they are ready to go back in and get permanently attached. I’ll have more caulking and filling to do, which will have to dry before I can do any kind of a finish coat of paint, but this was some major progress today even though you can’t see most of it yet.

I did learn that when I do my cabinet doors, I’m painting this paneling before I make the doors. It will make my life so much easier if I only have to do some touch ups instead of trying to get into the tiny grooves when they are butting up against something else.