Friday, May 23, 2014

We're Painting My Bedroom at Crest Avenue

We are painting my bedroom at Crest Avenue.  This has been, and continues to be, quite a project.  The room is small.  Actually, I believe this bedroom was originally intended as a spare bedroom.  But I took it as my bedroom because it is in the back of the house.  It is quieter back here.  And this bedroom does not get the glaring morning sun like the larger bedroom in the front of the house.  The larger bedroom I turned into my office.  I need a large office space.  I do not need much space to sleep.


The first thing that needed to be done was to disassemble the bed and get that moved out of the room.  Then it was time to prime the wood paneled wall.  Some time ago we knocked out this entire wall.  We then installed a new light switch, a new electrical outlet and a new cable and phone connector outlet.  After that work was completed, Bob installed the wood paneling.  This is not the 4' x 8' sheets of wall paneling from the '70's.  These are the tongue in groove panels that were popular in the '40's and '50's.  Many of the homes built during that period used these panels for basement walls.  They were also used in kitchens.  Most times they were shellacked with a high gloss.  I have decided not to do that.  I primed this wall in preparation for paint.  This wall will be painted in a solid color and the remaining three walls will be painted in the same color but with a color wash added on top.


Before we could start priming the walls, there was the issue of removing the wallpaper.  Originally, there was wallpaper on the walls from the '40's which took forever to remove.  I don't have any good advice for you on how to remove wallpaper.  Especially paper that has been on the wall for many years.  I tried everything and nothing made the job easier.  I bought one of those expensive steamers.  That didn't work.  All it did was make an enormous mess.  The steam turned to water on the wallpaper and the water ran down the wall and pooled on the floor.  I thought I would tear my hair out.  Good money down the drain.  I tried chemicals. I tried one of those wallpaper monsters which you roll over the paper to allegedly "loosen" it.  That did nothing but damage the wall underneath.  The one thing that worked the best was just a cheap spray bottle from Walmart filled with hot tap water and a wide blade putty knife.  That was what worked the best to remove the wallpaper.  You see above how I was able to loosen the wallpaper backing to get it off the wall.


Here is another section of wallpaper being removed.  I removed the original rose patterned(?!?!!!) wallpaper.  Then I began installing grasscloth.  I did not like the grasscloth once I saw it on the wall, so I removed it.


When I began the grasscloth installation, I painted strips of dark color where the wallpaper met.  The reason for that was to alleviate a tiny sliver of the white wall showing during the winter months when the paper contracts.  When the humidity level decreases, the paper contracts.  When the humidity level is high during the summer months, the paper expands.  And believe me, we have plenty of humidity here in the spring and summer.



So all of these dark swaths had to be primed before applying the new color.


The back wall of the bedroom, all paper removed and repairs made.


The northeast facing wall.  Same deal.  All paper removed and repaired.  This picture was taken in the early morning.  You see there is some early morning sun which comes through this window.  But nothing like the front bedroom.


This pillow, which I got from IKEA, has all of the colors I will be working with in the new color scheme for the bedroom.  Blues, teals, grays, mauves and golds - all of these beautiful colors which I am excited to bring into the room.


And finally, the best helper in the whole wide world.  Baxter.  It's been awhile since we talked about Baxter. He is fine.  He is very happy that spring has finally arrived.  And he is excited that it is Memorial Day weekend.  So there you have it for right now.  We are well into this project now and have some very busy days ahead of us.


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