So there’s really only one room in our house I had yet to touch.
Our master bedroom.
Because why would mom and dad need nice space in which to rest our heads? No one but us sees it and there was technically nothing wrong with it.
It was just REALLY REALLY boring.
We have this great bedroom, the biggest one we’ve ever had by far, with gorgeous molding and doors and a fireplace and architectural-ish ceiling, and it was just sitting there, a kind of mossy green (sad) color. Blah.
But with no ideas of what I wanted, it went unpainted, undecorated really but for a few photos above the bed. And since I wanted it to be REALLY bright in there, I thought maybe I’d paint it white. Maybe add some wall molding for interest? Until I started seeing super, dark, bedrooms. Rich beautiful colors that scare us because they are SO bold but are just so stunningly beautiful.
These are the colors that make designers the masters and us lay-people scared saps just wishing we had the guts to to choose such a daring color.
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But what about light??? Won’t it look like a cave in my bedroom if it’s not made of solid floor-to-ceiling windows?
These questions went through my head. Until I read this article (and this one) on Apartment Therapy. It was what I needed to get the guts.
Next I had to choose a color.
None of the articles I read were all that awesome about sharing paint colors and if they did, it was usually something I had no interest in tracking down (like Farrow & Ball), so I headed to Home Depot for my tried and true method: buy five tiny paint samples and try them out. For like $2.50 you can paint a decent swatch on several walls to test the color in different lights. I actually only ended up with about four colors and the winner was clear.
Starless Night by Behr.
It was the deepest, darkest, true navy blue I could get my hands on and I was in love. Course I had to run it by my incredibly daring and talented interior designer friends (thank you Catrina and Lara!), before popping over to Benjamin Moore for a little paint matching. I’m not a big fan of Home Depot paints…I think their coverage is a little on the weak side (sorry HD, let’s still be best buds). But BEN by Benjamin Moore is my go-to paint. Perfect coverage, low VOC, and excellent customer service. And not too bad of a price either.
All right all right, that was 10″ of how I selected my paint but dude, it was hard. Our bedroom looked like it was in a bar fight, giant patches of various blue shades painted sporadically on every wall. It was a mess. But all I could think is, “If this color doesn’t work, I’ll have to prime the whole room to change it,” which was all the motivation I needed to be sure the color was perfect.
So here’s where we started.
Nothing. We had done NOTHING to this room. Blah. That wall is green too, not at all gray even though the photo makes it seem gray-ish.
I prepped the room and grabbed my new toy, a HomeRight PaintStick to dive in. Not to get all commerically here, but I’ve rolled a LOT of rooms. Like every inch of every house we’ve lived in. I feel like I’m a pretty efficient painter. But the PaintStick took my efficiency to a whole other level. Basically, you use this tube to suck paint up into the long handle of the PaintStick. As you twist the handle, paint starts feeding to the roller and boom…you are painting.
NO bending over to a pan every 2.7 minutes.
NO pouring more paint into said pain every 11.4 minutes.
NO dripping paint all over the floors making giant, annoying drop clothes necessary.
Speaking of drop clothes, I didn’t even use one! Seriously, none. The only paint dripping I had was out of the end of the roller until I solved the problem with a little saran wrap. Not sure what they were thinking when they designed holes at the end of a tube that fills with paint, but we got it worked out.
Stu came upstairs ASTONISHED by how far I got in just an hour of painting. One gallon of paint got me all around the room with one coat (doesn’t count cutting in…that came later and took forever) in about an hour and a half. A tube of paint pretty much covered a whole wall before needing to be refilled.
It was amazing. I went through most of another gallon for the 1.5 extra coats (I do a second coat plus a quick and light 3rd coat, hence the .5), but it all went very fast with the new tool.
Clean up? SUCKED. I honestly expected this and paid $19 for the PaintStick saying that even if I only got this one room done, it would be worth the $$ to avoid all the bending and messiness. And sure enough, when I finished my 2.5 coats of paint and headed down to our shop sink I created what could only be called a blue paint murder-scene trying to get the PaintStick clean. It did come clean—not the roller, that sucker will need to be replaced—but the stick may just be usable again. Still totally worth the $$, I’m sold.
(I swear I wasn’t paid or prompted to say any of this, I just bought a PaintStick at Home Depot and gave it a try. You should too!)
The In-Progress results?
We LOVE it. I honestly don’t even want to leave the room. It’s so calming, so rich, the light bounces beautifully (just like Apartment Therapy promised it would!), and it’s so…grown up. The white trim and ceiling really pop now. All those windows and doors are actually noticeable with their dark surrounding.
We have a lot more to do. Art, plants, the red nightstands have GOT to go and theres a small dresser in my garage that will be getting some love, plus maybe a nice mid-century chair or two? And a few touches of gold. I know, gold? Never something I’ve used but get ready, it’s coming. I made the huge mistake of walking into West Elm the other day and was blown away by these night stands, this mirror, and these vases.
I’m honestly dreaming about those nightstands.
But I need a break to collect my thoughts and make a plan. Do a little craigslisting and thrift shopping. So bascially this room won’t be done for another six months. Any suggestions are welcome!!
I know these pictures kind of suck, rooms are SO hard to photograph and I’m just not all that good. But what do you think? Crazy? Cool? Cave-like? Too patriotic?
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