Bye Bye Orange

This weekend I began my big project to transform the orangy-colored basement into a warm neutral colored living space. Ever since we've moved into this new house, this has been the area that gets the least amount of use...and that is a shame because it is nearly 600 square feet. We've been watching television on an old TV upstairs and it is time to have a nice living/family room.

My Mom came over on Friday after work to help me begin priming. Since the old color was so vibrant, we put about 2 coats of white primer on. Friday we were able to get most all of the priming done and Saturday morning I finished. Later Saturday afternoon, my Mom and sister Becca came over to help. We painted the ceiling white (it was white before, but desperately in need of some fresh paint) and then painted the room a butter cream color. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work.

Here are some pictures....

So it is hard to see from the picture, but the final color is very much like butter cream. It is really warm and light. Unfortunately the carpet looks even more blue with this color, but that project is definitely for another weekend. I'm really pleased with the results and can't wait to get my new furniture in there. That furniture should arrive in a few weeks. So if all goes well, I'll have a complete room by the end of March. I couldn't have achieved such a big painting project in a weekend if it weren't for my Mom, my sister, and my hubby.

Since I am not much of a painter (I love to be surrounded in white) and am quite the beginner, I thought I'd record the "casualties" of the weekend as well as my favorite new painting tips....

• Bachelor is a bit of a pain when painting. Half-way through the project, he was leaning against a wall of wet paint. He now is a black and white dog with white primer specks all over. Also, one of my walls has a bit of dog hair forever implanted in it.
• Around 12am Friday night I stepped in my paint tray, knocking it all over. Even though I wanted to stay up later working, I decided to call it a night.
• Prepping the area with lots of blue tape and drop cloths was the best move. If I hadn't have done this I would have a giant white paint stain from knocking the paint can over.
• Priming is a good idea. It feels like a pain and isn't as fun as painting the main color, but once we got around to painting the main color it went on smoothly and we only needed one coat.
• My Mom told me to get disposable paint trays, disposable rollers, and disposable brushes. This was awesome and made cleanup a snap.
• We put saran wrap over our brushes and paint tray and put them in the fridge over night to save prep work the following day.
• We combined all 3 cans of paint into a 5 gallon bucket with a grate attached in the inside. This was much easier than the paint tray and ensured that all 3 cans of paint were mixed well.

Even though I am really pleased with the results, I have to say that painting remains on my short list of things that I want to avoid. It is a lot of work and it is quite messy. :)