Living Room Makeover – Part 1: Paint

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As a part of my Home Goals 2013, I am updating my living room with paint, board & batten and hanging pictures. I have several posts up my sleeve and I’ll spread them out over the next however long it takes to get them done. 🙂 

So, here’s part 1: Paint. (If you’re wondering what color this is, I recently talked about Picking the Perfect Gray {Paint}.)

 

This is the hallway leading from the open living space to the master bedroom.
To the left is the kitchen and the right is the laundry room and garage.

I’ve been working sporadically over the past two weeks to get the walls painted gray. This included the foyer, the two hallways and the top half of my living room. (I didn’t want to waste the gray paint on the bottom half if I’m just going to cover it up with white paint.)

All that =  a lot of paint and time. 

I decided to paint one section at a time, that way I had small accomplishments over the course of the whole project. I have to have quick, small victories or else I get bored and want to walk away from a project. (Trust me, I almost went out and bought cabinets for my laundry room before even finishing the entry way. But a good friend encouraged me to finish what I’d started before moving on to something else. Glad she did. Two room makeovers at once might have done me in!)

I painted two coats on each wall. I don’t ever think one coat works well when painting a wall. With the paints I use, with just one coat the roller and brush strokes are just too noticeable. So, I always paint two coats at least.

{Now I know these two pics aren’t apples to apples comparisons. The beige in the before pic has an unfair disadvantage because I had the lights on. It wasn’t really that yellow orange … well maybe a little. 🙂 }

 

Sorry for the grainy picture on the right …
I’ve been learning about my camera and forgot to change the ISO before I took this picture.

I used Valspar Ultra Paint + Primer in eggshell finish (Valspar is Lowe’s brand paint.). It’s the first time I used this paint and I’ve been pleased so far. The paint did not splatter when I rolled it, like some cheaper paints can do. It’s pretty thick and covers well. At first when I rolled it over the beige color, I thought the gray looked like baby blue. But as I finished more walls and got a second coat on everything, the gray really was lovely. It now just looks blue-ish when I see it right next to the beige in the living room.

I busted it on Monday to get all of the gray painted and done for play group at my house Tuesday morning. Yes, it was odd for me to let people come over with a half-and-half look going on in the living room. But I let go of my pride and let people in my house mid-project. Aren’t you proud of me? I don’t think I’ve ever done that before!

A little half-and-half wall for your viewing pleasure.

Next up, painting the bottom half of the living room white, and then it’s off to the hardware store to get my boards for the board and batten treatment. I know it’s going to look amazing.

I’m so excited to use this architectural element to define my large living space and give the room some structure. If you have a large room, it’s a great way to really give it some oomph and definition. I love that it will define the living room as one room from the other “rooms” in our open concept.

But back to painting … I’m so excited to finally get the walls the color and structure I wanted so that I can begin hanging pictures and other items on the wall. After a year of living here with blank walls, I think it’s due time! I did finally hang something new in the foyer since it’s done (for now). I hope to show you soon.

How have you added interest or definition to a large open space? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

More Living Room Makeover Posts:

  1. Living Room Paint: Part 2
  2. Part 3: Caulking and Spackling
  3. Part 4: Blue Accessories
  4. Part 5: Gallery Wall
  5. Part 6: Super Easy Throw Pillows
  6. Part 7: Final Reveal

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8 Comments

      1. What white paint color do you use for woodwork trim? Brand and color and finish to go with the gray paint colors you use in your home.

        1. Hi Mary Ellen, I use Simply White from Benjamin Moore in all of my homes. I love it! And I use semi-gloss for the paint finish. Hope that helps! 🙂

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