Before & In-Progress: Office Photo Dump

The only thing stopping me from this post was trying to think of some witty, engaging, relevant text to accompany the pictures from the office re-do. Well, that and the fact there's been no time to write it. Hello, JESSIE SPANO.

I can officially say that I'm fresh out of witty, engaging, relevant ideas. My best ideas happen in the shower in the morning or on the drive home from work in the evenings. I've had a shower every day this week and a drive home every night this week. I got nothing. Nada.

Plan B? Just post the darn pictures. No editing this time. The place was a worksite and that's what your gonna get. Like it or not. But I know you will so I can pretend to be tough. Enjoy!

Another view of room from Mr. B and Mama H's first day on the job.

Note the walls are without paint. Yeah. That'll come back to haunt us.

The other side of the room. Working around the radiator = not enjoyable.

Apologies for the shadow, but isn't the morning sunshine lovely?

TAH is not really known for her "natural lighting" even though there's a ton of windows (Try 33. Window replacement quote gave me severe anxiety.) I take what I can get with sunlight!

Wouldn't be a room redecoration without Mr. B and his cup(s!) of tea!

Paint color test. We ended up using 2nd from left: Accessible Beige, Sherwin Williams.

It was snowing on April Fools. Cruel, cruel trick Mama Nature!

Because every worksite needs a box of Cheez-Its.

(I like calling it a worksite for some reason? I recognize that usually worksites are where skyscrapers are built, but this is the closest I'm going to get to that, so indulge me please.)

Paint is drying here, so may look uneven to the untrained eye!

Accessible Beige is probably the lamest paint color name I've ever heard. Way to really sell me.

But I LOVE this color. Light, airy-fairy, and not too "beige-y".

And that's where the photo fun stops. I got tired of painting, closed the door to the room, and haven't really looked at it in a week. We still need one more coat of white paint on the bottom.

If you ever attempt this project - and you should because its easy - do yourself a favor and paint the bottom white before you put the boards up. DUH.

Guess Who's Back?

It's Mr. Shur Line!!!!!

Sorry for the below-average quality photo but we were in a rush. In case you can't tell, from left to right: old nasty blue paint in the back guest bedroom, new paint, white window trim.



The color is Bay Laurel by Restoration Hardware with Valspar Signature paint from Lowes. It's a sage color, but looks more beige in this photo unfortuately. We blitzed this room - walls cleaned, holes and cracks filled, one coat of paint all around in three hours. I can't speak highly enough of this paint. After one coat we could definitely call it a day. However, I'm making Mr. B do a quick second coat for good measure. Or punishment. Whatever.

This coming weekend we'll do a fresh coat of white for the ceiling and all the wood trim. Promise to share a full before and after entry when we're finished!

Bye Bye Red Robin - Part II

I wouldn't dare think of making yall wait too long for the Bye Bye Red Robin - Part II pics!

In case some of you didn't catch the comments on the previous post, the paint color is Woodlawn Colonial Gray at 75% by Valspar, from their line for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  Highly recommend.

The entire wall connecting to the dining room.

Again, needing Mr. B to finish the ceiling!

Surprisingly, this room gets limited daylight, so I was glad we caught these pictures at a good time.

Table, lamp, paint - go! This side of the room starts to get tricky,

especially around the windows on the left.

This is where Mr. Shur Line really came in handy.

I was not about to tape all these windows...

Last wall to finish!

And Mr. B's very valuable contribution - the ceiling!

Lucky for him Mama H. helped with this project but he'll get his painting stripes next time.



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!