Tag: Painting

Craft Room Project: Helping Hands

Yesterday was a phenomenally productive day. I was able to get the equivalent of probably a little over 2 days worth of work in. It’s amazing what you can get done when you have an extra set of hands to help with the work.

BG had casually mentioned the other day that she likes painting, which I had my doubts on as she didn’t get far in helping when I worked on her bathroom, but I tossed out the offer to help me anyway. I figured I could give her the simple pieces like painting the shelves while I worked on wiping down the walls so I could work on touch ups and painting the areas I’d left thinking cabinets would cover.

We started in the garage with what I had left of those cabinets. She got all the shelves coated while I finished up the last 3 cabinets. She worked on the shelves I had set up and prepped in the basement while I worked on the walls. By the time I had a couple of walls ready, she was done with the shelves and wanted to paint the walls, so I let her have at it.

Because we were moving so fast, already had my green paint out, and were looking at needing to stop to wait for that whole round to dry, we decided to just go a head and work on painting the stair walls. I’d put those off until I got closer to the end because I tend to bump them when moving stuff up and down, like all that wood. I’m far enough into this that whatever bumping happens now will be minor and easily fixable.

The plan was to get as far as the remaining paint in that can would get as we were close to the bottom. I worked on edging the walls out (and DAMN! there are a lot of edges in that space!!) and BG followed behind me with the roller. We got probably 3/4 of the walls done. All that is left is the smaller wall with the railing that still needs some patching and the upper funky sections near the ceiling by the door.

In all, I finished painting every cabinet, the walls are ready in the room, most of the stairway walls are painted, and probably about half of all the shelves are done. Basically, I’m ready to put the underlayment down and get most of the upper cabinets mounted, which is getting started today. I need some of those unpainted shelves done before I can mount a couple of the lower cabinets, but I’ll be working on those in between hanging the uppers.

I was absolutely stunned at how much got done. And BG? Holy crap! She put in about 5 and a half hours of work right along side me yesterday. She will probably never say she wants to paint again, but she didn’t complain one bit yesterday until we were almost done and that was just to let me know that her hands were starting to cramp.

While the cabinets went relatively fast, those shelves are taking forever because I only have so much room to lay them out to work on them. I didn’t think I’d be at this point for another few days, if not a little longer.

Yesterday was a really good day. I lucked out that she wanted to help. I also lucked out when my seriously broken brain didn’t absolutely screw me up. I’d gotten another can of paint because I ran out of what I was using for the cabinets. For some reason I asked for satin instead of semi-gloss (which is what I’d been using). Thankfully, there is no real noticeable difference between the two, at least in my color, so I didn’t have to go get another can to fix the mistake.

Sadly, things like that are becoming my norm lately.

 

Craft Room Project: Cabinet Paint Round 1

The cabinet painting is well underway. This is all but 6 cabinets and these all have a full first round of paint including edging out all the corners and seams. The other 6 are set up in my garage. I have all the edges as well as the top and bottom painted of the upper cabinets on those.

Today, I’ll be doing the first layer of paint on the 6 and, at the very least, the second coat on the ones still in the basement. There are also a whole lot of shelves and support pieces that need to be painted. I’m pretty sure I’ll get close to getting all the cabinets painted today, but all those shelves may take another day to get finished.

Just seeing the white in the room instead of the bare wood has made a huge difference in how the space looks, even with the cabinets out of place. That has been the change I’ve been waiting for and it is everything I’d hoped it would be.

At this pace, I should be able to start installing these by Monday. I’ve got to figure out how to get all of these out of the room so I can finish painting the walls in some places and put down the underlayment first.

They won’t all be able to be installed all the way just yet, though. I’ve got to get the counters stained and mounted before I can get a few of the upper cabinets installed, but I’m so close!

Craft Room Project: Surprise Inspection

When I went downstairs to add another coat of paint yesterday, I discovered that I had undergone an inspection. One that left behind evidence of a rather nosy, but careless inspector. It took me a bit to realize that is what happened.

One of my panels just looked like a couple of areas absorbed more paint than normal and was splotchy. I didn’t think anything of it and just repainted and moved on. When I saw this one, I figured it out.

Midnight, my introverted kitty that spends most of her time in the basement, got nosy. And ended up with paint on her paws. She must have slid a bit on that first panel so you couldn’t see the actual prints

I now have little paw prints on the plastic I have covering my table and I had to pick out a small amount of cat fur from that last panel. Thankfully, she didn’t get much on her as it was just dry enough not to make a huge mess, but what is there is going to take a bit for her to work out of the fur around her pads. I was also really grateful that the paint was still wet enough that I could easily just paint over it, but not so bad that she tracked it everywhere. Beyond the couple of prints on the plastic, there wasn’t a mess.

I have now blocked off all access to the basement again and it will stay that way until this project is done. Something that is a pain because there isn’t a door there anymore. Midnight wasn’t happy that her territory isn’t accessible and she was rather vocal about letting me know of her displeasure.

Craft Room Project: Table Base – First Coat

The initial dry fit on the table base is done, so everything fits the way it is supposed to.

Table Base: Dry Fit
Table Base: Dry Fit

I also managed to get the very little sanding done that was needed (really impressed with everything about this base and the company I got it from) and I’ve got the first coat of paint on.

Table Base: First Coat of Paint
Table Base: First Coat of Paint

So far, it looks like it is covering really well, so it probably won’t need more than another coat and some touch ups. I honestly expected it to take a lot more. I am absolutely loving it all so far. I’ll get the base finished and attached to the top, but the table won’t be completely finished until I stain the top.

I’m waffling on when to do that as I will also have to stain the other counters. One side of me wants to get the top on this stained just to see all the colors in the space at once, but the realistic side of me says I really need to wait and do them all at the same time.

Working on this today just has me giddy. I’m absolutely loving how it is looking. Just seeing the base sitting on the top is exciting even though it isn’t attached or stained yet. I am not regretting losing the cabinet space to the table. The more I think about it and now seeing this, I’m so happy I made that change.

It is going to be so gorgeous!

Craft Room Project: Main Walls Painted

I didn’t quite get as much done today as I’d hoped, because yet again, I ran into a couple of issues.

I did manage to get the walls in the craft room itself edged out and painted, which was the bulk of what I wanted to accomplish today.

Craft Room: Edging Out The Walls
Craft Room: Edging Out The Walls

I don’t bother to tape anything when I paint because I’ve learned over the years that I do a much cleaner job if I just freehand it very carefully. It also takes a whole lot less time than taping and then cleaning up the places that the tape didn’t quite sit right. I edge everything that the roller can’t hit and then just a little over that so that I can have a good overlap of coverage.

Craft Room: Finished Paint on Walls, Stair Side
Craft Room: Finished Paint on Walls, Stair Side

The color looks amazing and covered better than I expected after I had to do the two coats on the ceiling. I didn’t paint the lower section of the walls where cabinets are going to go, so that blank area is intentional.

Craft Room: Finished Paint on Walls, Recessed Shelf Wall
Craft Room: Finished Paint on Walls, Recessed Shelf Wall

I made the decision when I started edging that I wasn’t going to do the stair walls right away. With all that is going to be going up and down until this is finished, I’m waiting until everything else is done first that way I can easily fix anything that might get dinged up along the way.

I had intended to get the plate covers on the outlets and switches as well as potentially put up my main light, but the covers became a problem. The drywall guys cut all the openings just a bit too big, so I have to go back and either mud a couple of areas or paint quite literally to the very edge of the drywall. As it is now, I was able to get up 2 covers with out issue out of 10 boxes.

When I realized I had to get the paint back out after cleaning up and not even being able to paint the worst until I repaired it, I decided I was done for the day as I didn’t want to mess with it. It goes on my to do list for tomorrow along with prepping the doors and trim for paint.

I do love my walls though. It always amazes me how much a coat of paint can completely change a room. In this case, take it a huge leap towards looking more finished.

Craft Room Project: Color Pallete

I realized that I hadn’t shared my specific color pallete for this project. I thought that since I’m getting started on painting today it would be a good day to do that.

The creamy white, which looks more white than the creamy color it shows here once is is on a larger surface and from a distance, is the color my cabinets are going to be. The sagey gray-green is going on the walls and the gray wood is the floor (again, the color is a little off and it really is a little more gray).

It was seeing this color and floor combination in a random photo that popped up on my FB feed a while ago that really kick started the more specific plans for this room. Until then, I didn’t have a direction I wanted to go, so hadn’t been making any kind of progress. It figures that what I needed to get it going was some color.

I’ll be covering and taping off the lights and spraying the ceiling today. It is going to be a straight up basic white to help keep the room bright. My goal is to get that done, get the small lights in place so they aren’t hanging anymore and then to start on any fixing/repairs that need to be done on the walls and doors today. How much I get done really depends on how many issues I find and how much work it is going to take to fix them.

And as I sit here writing this, I just realized that I’ve got a huge problem I need to try and solve. I have no way to block my cats from this room unless I lock them in another room again, which they did NOT appreciate. When I go to paint the cabinets and to some extent the walls, they are going to need to be out of there until the paint dries. I don’t want cat fur embedded in my paint and I REALLY don’t want to have to figure out how to get paint off a cat.

It is my hope that I can get the painting done so that I can start on the floor by the end of the weekend. I’m apparently going to have to spend some of that time brainstorming what to do with the furry monsters.

Stop And Smell The Roses

I had fully intended to post a book review after I finished painting today, but I’m done in. I am so not nearly as young or as in shape as I used to be and all that climbing and crawling and pretzel twisting kicked my old ass. I’m just gonna give you some flowers instead then find the least movement inducing thing I can until tomorrow.

The bathroom looks killer, by the way. I wasn’t sure how good it would be with her already rather vibrant room, but it actually works. Besides, she loves it, so that is all that really matters.

Painting Day

I’m finally getting around to doing something I promised BG a year ago or more. Painting her bathroom. I am so not looking forward to it because it is a small space with not a whole lot of solid wall. That means there is going to be a crap ton of up and down on the step ladder, crawling around on the floor, hugging a toilet and basically bending myself into a pretzel to get it done because it is almost all edges, hence the nearly a year to get around to doing what I said I would.

Hopefully I wont kill myself in the process and can actually get to writing that book review I need to do. So far, this summer has been a series of stuff to do and interruptions and sickies and weird, random allergy outbreaks on both BG’s part and mine. I am ready for things to get to some semblance of a normal summer routine, but I have a feeling that isn’t going to happen this year.

Original for the above manipulated image:

Cherry Blossoms
Cherry Blossoms

Today’s Project… Painting

I need to preface this with the fact that I don’t normally paint. If I do, it is almost always something small like the faces on my nutcrackers or something like that. I have done a few projects over the years, but I’ve never felt like I was very good at it. When I took pictures of BG in her pointe costume so I could use it as reference for the cake, I fell in love with the entire shot. It just would not let me go and next thing I know, I need to try and paint it, even though that isn’t really my thing.

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