Just one wall left!

And six doors and a whole bunch of trim. Three of the doors have been sanded, three more to go before I slap on the first coat of paint. I am worried about the doors since I'm painting them a light (almost white) color and they are currently blue with bright red panels. I am also not looking forward to sanding (am I ever?). I am so sick of sanding that I started to skip the in-between sanding.

My driving motivation: finish before the heat really starts. I couldn't get anything done the last few days because it was so hot and humid. I was so afraid of things not getting done in time that I left work on time today just so that I could take advantage of the cooler weather. But now I am so tired and I still have a wall left to do. :( There once was a time when I thought we would get a fixer-upper and fix it up exactly the way we wanted it by ourselves. If I can't even finish painting, how could I even think to do that?

Orange + food

Colors for the dining area charette bin (no, I still can't decide):

Matt's chef table from tonight's episode of "Top Design"

(Photo from This Old House)

(Photo from IKEA)

Today I finally finished the second coat of paint in the alcove. Just when I thought I was done painting that area and we could move some furniture over, I realize that the moulding also needs to be painted. GRRRRR!! Who, in their right minds, would ever paint trim to be any other color other than white or off-white?! If the previous tenant had left it white-ish like she did with the living room, I'd be done by now!!
And for moulding, you have to really clean up/sand all the little nooks, otherwise the paint pools up in all those little details (as it already has) and it loses its profile. So not looking forward to this part. :(

[SIDENOTE: If you are interested, that unique-looking ladder was made by Dear's grandfather -- isn't that cool? It's a bit heavy, but I am proud to be able to use something he has made with his own hands, without the help of power tools. I've heard he was really good with his hands and I would have liked to meet him.]

Progress on alcove, or how to remove wallpaper

I took Wednesday off and actually got some work on the apartment done. I am so unmotivated now, it is a struggle which I can't stand more, the mess of things unfinished or the labor involved to finish. Right now, I'm "working" on the little alcove area next to the living room. I dread even thinking about painting the hallway and doors (more funky colors to cover up!).

On Wednesday, I had some help with the sanding (which I detest more than the painting) and then I painted the first coat. Now I have just one coat left (after another light sanding of course, grrr)! Here is the progression:

BEFORE: flowery, paisley-like wallpaper and yes, the baseboard moulding really was painted yellow and green.

A few moons ago, I tested a small area to see whether fabric softener really would loosen the paper and it did! Then I stopped working in this area to finish the bedroom, which we would need so that we could sleep comfortably.

Here's another view of this area, where you can see the confluence of colors that the previous tenant lived with. I am too embarassed to show the other side right now, where there are even more colors.

So the first order of business, after struggling to remove the somewhat plasticky paper was to score it. I got this round thingy with rolling wheels underneath that pierced the paper with lots of little holes without damaging the wall behind the paper. Then I sprayed a whole lot of fabric softener, letting it soak in.

And the sheets became easy to pull down. I think the tiny holes really helped.

Sometimes a few bits and pieces were left behind because I didn't let that area fully soak. I just re-sprayed, waited a few minutes, and then scraped with a scraper.

Dear helped by removing the picture hooks with a pair of pliers.

The last piece!

The holes in the wall, patched up and sanded.

After all the wallpaper was removed, I washed all the walls with TSP, a blue liquid that really cleans your walls and leaves it feeling slightly rough, ready to primed. I thought it necessary to use TSP to make sure all the glue from the paper was completely gone. After washing with TSP, it is necessary to rinse it off thoroughly.

The walls finally primed!

I took the extra step of priming with an oil-based primer so that if there were any glue residue (wallpaper glue is water-based) the oil would block it (since oil and water don't mix).

On a sidenote, I think it will be OK to keep the light fixture here (just need to straighten it out a little). At first, with the busy twirls of the wallpaper matching the curves on the fixture, I thought it was just too much going on in such a small space. Now, I think the curves are a good complement to the plain walls.

Today, I proceeded to lightly sand the walls and then apply the second coat. Unfortunately, I ran out of paint so I only finished a wall. When will this ever be done? I can't wait to roll up the dropcloth in this area because we keep tripping on it and it is so ugly!

Browns and oranges

Dear always makes fun of me for being indecisive about color choices. He thinks that I test him by making him choose amongst several colors, then showing him another bunch of colors with his first choice mixed in to see if he picks the same exact one. I swear that they are all different colors but in looking at my last post, I can see why some would view me as crazy. Some of those colors look exactly the same!

So here are the colors, matched as closely as possible to web colors through colorcharts.org:

Which color do you like?

The living/dining room's slow transformation

The original wall color -- an old-ladyish dusty rose

At this point the walls were slightly roughed up with 150 grit sandpaper so there was dark pink dust everywhere -- eegh!

View of other end of room, with walls primed

First coat of paint (yes, there's really color there)

The color came out a lot lighter and more yellow than I expected. Everyone kept saying that you should find a color you like, then move up one shade lighter on the color chip thingy because it comes out darker in real life. Well phooey on them because I would have preferred something darker and if you hold the chip up against the wall, it blends in perfectly. It's just hard to gauge how it will look until the entire space is covered. And every little thing affects it, from lighting to furniture, etc. but I'm OK with it (for now). One thing the majority was right about is testing out colors in the room, at various times of day, on a white background. I didn't really have a white background to work with and the color ended up being less beige and more like cream.

Second coat, with potential accent wall left unpainted

I think it's a bit easier to see the color next to the currently white wall. Or maybe it's that the second coat of paint really did make a difference. Speaking of second coats, this color is so light that it was really difficult to see where I had already painted. Such are the perils of painting....

Choosing (or trying to) a color for the accent wall

If it's not already obvious, I have no idea what I'm doing, if this is even the right wall to accent, whether or not any of the color choices clash with the existing window treatment (b/c we're not likely changing those custom-made blinds), and whether these colors will clash with the furniture or other stuff. The idea is to put the dining table in front of this wall and I was thinking of a warm color to cozy up this side of the room and I had also read that warm colors make you feel welcome and induce you to eat more (i.e. feel more comfortable). That said, can you help me choose a color?!

A modern room and wallpaper removal

I came across the Kreiss site today and just loved the look of this room: cool, clean, comfortable. It's called the Libra collection and surprisingly has materials that I wouldn't normally consider, like marble (always thought that too high-end shi-shi for my taste) and wrought iron. But I like how bright and light the room is, with several accent colors and the contrast with dark materials. I've always liked the look of a white room with dark floors -- it just looks so spacious and airy (I guess tall ceilings also help in this instance).

And I really like this chair:


for the low price of $2575. It looks so comfy, yet has clean lines and looks solid. Hoping to find a close replication for much less.

Meanwhile, I'm looking into wallpaper removal options for the apartment:

• a step-by-step primer, from This Old House
  
• video and instructions on what to do when someone has painted over the wallpaper, from an episode on Ask This Old House that I saw on PBS
  
• step-by-step, from Zinnser (using their products, of course)
• information on stripping and how to paint afterwards, from This Old House
  
• and lastly, I've heard about spraying the paper with fabric softener mixed with hot water

One of the articles mentioned that you should use an oil-based primer after removing all the paper and glues because the water in water-based paints might reactivate some of the glues. But can you use water-based paint over oil-based primer?