Baby’s room update: Painting May 31, 2010

C & I did it ourselves and it looks great!  I never would have guessed it was possible, as neither of us has ever painted ANYTHING before. However, with a lot of prep work, we managed to paint the whole room for less than $100 and it looks really good.  Here’s how we did it:

1. I asked a friend of mine who paints her house all the time to go with us to Lowe’s and pick out supplies.  This way we got exactly what we needed, without buying too much or buying the wrong size/shape/style.
2. My sister had strongly recommended Sherwin Williams Paint, so we took the baby quilt over there, and got a couple of sample buckets ($5 each).
3. We painted little patches with the samples on the wall, let them dry, and checked them out with the quilt and different lighting over the course of a week.
4. We looked online for the best way to measure a room to estimate paint, and decided that 1 can of SW paint would do, as long as we only needed 1 coat.
5. The SW paint was more expensive than the stuff at Lowes, but from our test areas and my sister’s experience, we figured we could do it all in one shot, with one coat – and it worked! (With me being 6 months pregnant at the time, I was deeply grateful we didn’t have to do a 2^nd coat – the first coat wore me out!)
6. We prepped everything a week in advance –wiped off the walls, patched and sanded holes, taping, plastic, etc.  We even taped the perimeter of the ceiling.  Not everyone does this, but we figured being amateurs we couldn’t be too careful. Plus, we can see evidence all over our home that the previous owners didn’t do this and got paint all over the ceiling.
7. We watched a little video on the SW website on “how to paint” and that was immensely helpful! I think we dodged a lot of drips and got a more even paint job from using their tips.
8. Finally painting day came, and within 3 hours C and I were finished!

The room turned out great, and the paint smell completely disappeared within a week. Most of our supplies are re-usable, so we set them in the garage for our next big painting endeavor. The baby’s room is now a pale, sunny yellow and it didn’t cost us a fortune nor end in a mess.

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