Project 14: Painting the Living Room

There are many DIY projects that you can mess up and easily fix. Don't like the wall paint color you picked? Just try again. New light fixture isn't working? Put the old one back. But if you paint wood paneling and then decide you don't like it? (insert crickets sound here)...you're out of luck.

That's the reason I was a little nervous about painting our Living Room stark white. Let's start with the before:

Lots and lots of brown...looks dark and drab
And here's what the built in desk looked like before:

When I cleared off the desk and took off the doors, LJ and I agreed that it looks WAY better without them. We're going to leave them off. Eventually this will all be knocked out and changed. But that might not happen for a LONG time. In the mean time this will create some nice open shelves for DVD and books and such:

I looked at a lot of 'how to paint wood paneling' info online and I found a lot of information. Everyone seemed to agree that the first step was to clean the paneling. I thought this would be quick....it was not. It took F.O.R.E.V.E.R. 

The second step is to paint all the walls with primer. I suggest you use the brand Killz. Now, half the websites said I needed to paint all the crevices and cracks between panels. Other websites said that if I use a roller meant for smooth surfaces the primer would find it's way into the cracks. Well, let me tell you that at least in my experience you DO have to go over EVERY crevice...and it's super annoying. Here I am painting the crevices first:

Then I used a mini roller to cover the actual panels. The I used has a 4" roller head and looks like this:

Here is a good during photo of after I painted the crevices but only mid way through the roller coat:

(yes, I'm watching Storage Wars while I work... I love Berry)

After primer it was time for paint. For this room I decided to go with bright white, and when I say bright white, I mean they literally didn't add ANYTHING to the gallons of paint when I bought them. They just shook the paint up for consistency and handed it over. I'll be honest, it's REALLY white. Here is what I used:

This is what the first coat looks like when I take pictures of it with my camera:

It looks way better in this picture than it did in real life. In real life it looks really yellowish. I just thought, "Oh, well it will look better after the second coat." Guess what? It didn't look a lot better after a second coat. It took three coats and then I had to go through with a brush and do touch ups on patches that still looked like the brownish/yellow tone was seeping through.

The result? I think the room is a LOT brighter now. I love it. It no longer feels like dungeon:

I think the bright bright white wouldn't work for a lot of rooms that have lots of wall space. But if you look at our room with all the doors, entry ways, window ect there really isn't a lot of wall space. So the white walls work. They let light bounce around the room and draw attention to the beautiful beams on our ceilings (didn't notice those, did you?). Now, they do need some color. I'll be bringing in color through artwork, roman shades and throw pillows.... and I can't wait ;)

Before:

After:

But this project isn't really over... Next I need to paint all that trim. With the window seat and built in desk, this room has a LOT of trim...I just hope it doesn't take 3 coats! I've removed the tape (see below) and now I'm just waiting for the wall paint to cure before I tape off for the trim.

This project is continued here and concluded here.