The hubs and I were talking one night about how we didn't like the stain on the mantel. (We never talk about things we don't like in our home, we do truly love where we rest our heads and hearts each night, so this discussion really stuck with me.)
He said, "but if we change the trim, where would we stop? Everything in the house is honey!". This got the gears in my head-a-turning. It was a slow turn (approx. 5 weeks worth of turning) but it hit me, JUST PAINT THE DAMN TRIM!
So yesterday I had a sit down with B (my boss) and D (one of the architects in our office) about my dilemma.
me: where do I start? I don't want it to look stoopid
b: if you don't want it to look "stoopid" then don't stop halfway through. if you do this, you have to do ALL of it.
(It wasn't until after I got home with all the paint supplies I realized just how much would need to be painted. After I threw up a little, I realized, I could totally do this!)
me: uh hu. but what do I buy? I don't wanna get the wrong thing, latex? oil based? primer? no primer? (I never play helpless girl in the office, but sometimes, I just don't know what I should do, and I'd rather NOT screw up!)
b: get an oil based primer, latex paint, brushes, tape and GO!
And off I went. Armed with a coupon for Lowe's (that randomly appear in our mailbox!) I went to the paint department. I was helped by a VERY knowledgeable woman (who was about my age...she laughed at all my stoopid jokes, so we got along swimmingly!) who pointed me in the right direction. (She even let me smell the difference in the regular and 'odorless' primer I was buying. I went with the 'odorless' because I didn't want to a) die b) have the hubs complain c) kill one of our animals...)
Here's what I bought:
- #00 grade steel wool (to rough up the already stained wood)
- (2) huge rolls of wide masking tape
- (2) really cute paint brushes (they don't have a long handle and are much easier to hold for long periods of time)
- gallon of Kilz odorless (smells like egg...but it goes away really fast!)
- gallon of Valspar "white" (omg, there are like 1,000 shades of white)
- (2) super cheap cans of no-name white, glossy spray paint for the registers/returns
After talking with the hubs, we decided (well, I decided and he agreed) that, in case we didn't like the white trim, I'd just "try it out" in our closet. You know, see how the steel wool works, how the primer lays...that kinda stuff.
I had never used primer before (but more on that later)...lets get to the good part, PICTURES! Here are some befores:
(Do me a solid and don't judge the blue robe. That thing is KILLER comfy!)
And here are the afters:
(It might look kinda lame next to the white walls...but just wait because the closets are pretty much the only rooms in our home that aren't painted!)
...and there you have it. My first attempt at painting the trim in our closet. (and don't worry about the little honey-colored outline around the inside of the trim on the door. I didn't want to go too crazy painting last night, just in case we ended up not liking it!)