Bye Bye Red Robin!

Hello new living room color! Our first "after" photos. This deserves champagne. Or a least a cold beer. One project down, 93896382658 more to go.

This project actually happened a few weeks ago but I was waiting to share until the we finished all the final touches.
As fate would have it, Mr. B had been planning a boys golfing weekend in October long before we knew we would be closing on the house. We signed the papers on Monday (our anniversary!) and he was off on Wednesday. My mom had been planning to come visit anyways, so it made perfect sense that she and I would tackle the living room while Mr. B was away.

So I refer you to the "before" pictures to remind you of how dreadfully, terribly, awful the living room was. The reddish/orange was dark and even made me feel a little clastrophobic. People have nightmares about being trapped in rooms that color. No joke.

Now when I say I was lucky to have Mama H. helping me out on this project, I'm not exaggerating. She's the pro at painting. She knows every trick in the book and I still have a lot to learn from her. We blitzed this room like there was no tomorrow. And there wasn't, because we had to pick Mr. B up from the airport on Monday.

Mama's tip #1: Don't waste your time painting test colors on the wall.

Use a piece of poster board. You don't have to worry about priming and you can move the board around the room to test the light in different corners of the room at different times during the day. You might be thinking who the heck didn't know this trick already? This girl. We can talk more about the "Great Paint Disaster" from Boundaries Road another day.

Mama's Tip #2: 75% rule
So here's what we were deciding between. Top left was too beige. Bottom left was too gray. Top right was the clear forerunner but it seemed too dark. Bottom right was too light and white. So what did Mama H do? She marched right back to the paint counter and asked for a sample of III at 50% and 75%. Again, here's the novice: Me: "Wow, you can do that?" Mama H: (laughing) "Oh you have so much to learn."
The color on the pizza box lid in the top right (yes, we are highly resourceful!) was the winning color at 75%.

Did I mention Mama H. is also the spackling queen? She was a pro on the plaster....

And we're off! Notice the handle extension. Guess who's idea that was? One hint: not mine. We used Valspar Signature paint for this project. I have to admit, it wasn't my first choice...but I was totally suckered in by the commercials. You might remember a couple painting over stripes in their dining room without primer? Yeah, I wanted to see if that was really the case. It was. Only two coats of paint for this job, and we really could have gotten away with just one coat. Bomb diggity.

I'm already bored at this point and we've done .05% of the total project. But I took this picture for a reason. Bonus points if you can guess why? Give up? There's no tape.....! That's because Mama H. had the shortcut of ALL shortcuts.

Meet Mr. Shur Line, our edging pro. Worked like a dream on the baseboards, window frames and door frames. I will only paint with Mr. Shur Line from here on out. No Mr. Shur Line, no painting for Mrs. B.

Dab some paint on the sponge and you're ready to rock and roll. Greatest. Invention. Ever. I hate taping.

Mr. Shur Line in action. Perfection. Bliss. I would happily spend the rest of my life painting around doorframes with Mr. Shur Line. Shur thing.

Can you just feel the anxiety and stress caused by the reddish/orange color just melt away. This is much better. This is the first coat and I intentionally stayed away from the ceiling for two reasons. The first being that Mr. Shur Line doesn't particularly like our plaster ceilings. They aren't always a strong 90 degree angle and it was a little risky to use him up top. Secondly, my step ladder was inches too short and I would have to stand on my tip toes (scary!) The ceiling required someone with a little more height. Like 6'2" height. Mr. B height.

More photos to come soon!