We Are Painted

Thanks to motoring through the mud, tape and texture I was ready to get the bathroom painted on Saturday

But before I could prime there were just two small items on the to do list. First, I went around with a drywall knife and knocked down and high parts of the texture. Parts that stuck out a bit too far from the wall or were a little chunky. After I went over all the walls and ceiling I completed the second item: cleaning. It's really important right before you prime (or paint if you're simply painting over a color you don't like) to go over everything with a really lightly damp sponge. In our case, the little pieces of drywall dust left on the wall that would be primed over would not make the primer stick properly to the wall and result in a crappy paint job. If you're repainting it's still just as important because you don't want to paint over finger prints and dirt or other residue on the wall because it will also not make the paint stick properly. You may have to use a product to help clean the walls like TSP if your walls are more dirty than normal. But once once I cleaned all the surfaces it was time to prime

I gotta say, priming is my least favorite part of painting. It always takes so much longer because the drywall and joint compound just completely suck it up and it's so little reward. It doesn't make the room look much different. It's the most important step though because without a good primer coat your color layers look like shit. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. Luckily this room is small so it didn't take long.

After the primer was dry, I put on the first coat of ceiling paint. I like to paint the ceiling before I paint the walls because 1) it's not nearly as fun so I like to get it out of the way and 2) I find it a lot easier to cut into the ceiling from the wall as opposed to cutting into the wall from the ceiling. The angle is a lot more comfortable and I get a much better line. Because this is the bathroom we went with semi-gloss paint and just went basic Ultra Pure White for the ceiling. We added mildewcide to it to help protect against mold and mildew. You can buy paint that's mixed specially for bathrooms and wet spaces, but adding mildewcide to basic paint is a whole lot cheaper

While I waited for the ceiling to dry before I could get up the second coat I broke out the paint samples

I started with 3 colors originally that were on the mood board. But the second I got the samples at HD I didn't like the colors (samples 1-3). I had wanted them to be a green shade, but they were just too green for me. It's weird, on the paint deck I really liked them, but once I saw the dot on the sample container I really didn't like them (they were Ben Moore Sabre Gray, Cos Cob Stonewall and Ashwood Moss).  So I went to  HD and got 3 more (paint samples 4-6). Immediately after they went on the wall I had some clear opinions

When 1 & 2 went up on the wall I was not a fan, and I found 3 revolting. It looks like diarrhea. Seriously, it looks like a nasty poop happening. It was not attractive. I was happy that I got samples 4-6. When 4 went up I LOVED it. It was a serene gray with hints of green and blue in it. I really liked 5 as well and 6 was a really nice contrast with the white. 

Once the colors dried I brought Chris in to see what he thought. His initial reaction: 4 was out, like 2 the best and 5 & 6 were good too. Doh! Despite me really liking 4, that was out because we don't like picking colors only one person likes. Chris thought it was too close to the white tile that will be all over the place and just looked washed out. I understood the reasoning so that one got eliminated. 2 was out because I really didn't like it, so it was up to 5 or 6. The more we sat on the colors (really till just after lunch) we liked 5 more and more 

It started looking like it had hints of blue in certain light so we liked the color variation. Plus, it wasn't too dark and it wasn't too light. 5 it was. Off to HD I went to buy a gallon.

I got home, got the second coat of ceiling paint on, worked on other tasks, had dinner and got the first coat of Glidden's Slate Green on the wall

I was too tired to get the second coat on the wall after the first was dry, so Sunday morning I finished it up and I love, love, love it

The color has so much variation in it. Sometimes it reads totally green. Then sometimes it looks gray. And other times it has a ton of blue in it. I really love all the change. This corner angle is a great representation of the variation

Green on the left wall and much darker and gray on the right. It's so pretty

Without much light it looks like a very deep gray

And as you can see, Chris even got the lights (and fan) up Sunday morning too

The room is really coming together. We're actually, amazingly, just about ready to start tiling. Bah!