I have been a little spoiled. I bought brand new construction, and it spoiled me. I had fresh, newly painted walls, gorgeous granite countertops. stainless steel appliances, real hardwood floors, brand new carpet.
But, I wanted a single family home.
With a yard.
In the nice neighborhood.
Out of the ghetto...
Enter new/old home!
Enter 13 different types of flooring. Green and blue carpet. Leveled floors. Wood paneling. Lots of holes. Different colored outlets (because someone had the bright idea to paint them). Textured ceilings. More wallpaper. Poor patch jobs. More flooring. Light switches that go to nothing. Laminate countertops. Painted doors. Painted cabinets. But I got the single family home.
I knew when I moved in that I had a long to-do list, but that I had to get started with the basement. This beautiful space was what would make me some money to fund all of my other projects. You totally want to rent this space, right?!
It was hideous. So. Much. Brown! I didn't even want to go down there, but I knew I had to. I had to figure out if my latest pinterest project would fix the problem, or if I was going to have to tear it all out and drywall. For some reason, they did the wood paneling in different directions- some was horizontal, some was diagonal. I remember my friend saying "at least it's not the REALLY bad wood paneling." Except, that was a lie- it was bad.
I had decided that I was going to white wash the wood, and that the paneling would provide great architectural detail (in other words, I was being cheap). I dug around and found some paint from my previous home- White Shadow. I remember as I was cleaning out my garage, my neighbor was telling his wife and I that he didn't know why we kept all our old paint and supplies- this was why! This quart of paint would be enough to do all four sections of wood paneling. I used a measuring cup and poured 1 cup of paint in a bucket, with 2 cups of water. Of course, I had watched this youtube video on whitewashing, and this made me an expert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4-p5lzzXig
I tried his technique. I painted, then rubbed with a dry cloth. Not only did this take forever, but I immediately regretted my decision just two boards in. I kept it up through this whole piece of the wall. Then sat on the stairs in front of it, and just stared at it. It looked just awful.
I decided, to try one more coat before I quit and just painted the whole wall instead. At this point, I stopped wiping it with the rag. And suddenly, I started liking it better. I started seeing my vision coming together- yes, I had a vision, I wasn't at all being impulsive ;)
When I hit the third stretch of wood, I had a little visitor. You can see, she left all sorts of fun on the floor for me to trip over while painting. But, she stood at my side as my little cheerleader telling me what a great job I was doing. I can tell on the wall right where she arrived. Dad says she tends to leave her mark on most of his projects too. By now, it was starting to look much more feminine...
but then I HAD to put some color on the walls, and tone down the navy blue in the little bedroom. So again, I dug through some old paint, and found that I had a little gray left over. I actually had two shades of gray. Gray looks awesome with white, right?! It looks even better when I don't have to spend more money on paint!
And I know you're thinking, I LOVE what the previous owner did with the paneling on the door. Don't you worry... they did it on every other cabinet, closet, and bedroom door in the house. Some they even did in a nice aqua color!
I've got the floors picked out and ready to go:
and that door and the baseboards will get done when those go in. Until then, I just tell people not to look down at the hunter green carpet on the stairs. Or the brown floor. Or the one light switch that is half black and half white. Basically, you're only allowed to look at my paint job!
No comments:
Post a Comment