Monday, July 4, 2011

Operation Cutify - Living Room Pt. 2

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We're not perfectionists by any stretch of the imagination, but we certainly don't believe in doing anything worth doing half-assed, especially if we have to sign our name to it. That being said, it's been a real pain in the ass painting our LIVING ROOM over the past couple of days, because we are striving to "do it right". Our bodies ache from exercising underused muscles and from twisting ourselves into weird shapes in order to spackle, sand, and paint every nook and cranny, including parts of the living room that no one will ever see (i.e. the tiniest of blemishes, the undersides of low hung shelves, the top edges of all the trim closest to the ceiling, etc.)...

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We finally removed the DOORS that were installed to cover the bottom most shelves of the built-in bookcases. The doors (which were "done half-assed" by one of the previous home owners) were built from scrap wood paneling - they were terribly warped and didn't close all the way. And they were an eyesore. We were glad to get rid of them, though, they would not go without a fight. Whoever installed the doors also painted over all the screws and hinges, so we had to scrape all the paint off them with razors before we could even unscrew them...

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We also replaced all the NASTY OLD REGISTERS in the living room (three of them) with brand new ones. Almost immediately, it felt like more air was able to come thru the vents. Huzzah!

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Missy and I decided to paint the room TAUPE, which is the same color we painted our HALLWAY GALLERY, only we went with a satin finish instead of a semi-gloss one. Taupe is a cool color because of it's chameleon-like characteristics...It can go from light lavender to periwinkle and then to pale gray depending on the time of day and how the light hits it. We're currently on our 4th day of painting and we're finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. We just need to add a second coat to the walls and then do a few touch ups to the trim and then we're done. Then we gotta wait a day or two before we can put stuff back up on the shelves...that's a whole 'nother agonizing ordeal, as we plan to "downsize" a bit before we finally re-organze and re-decorate...

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5 comments:

EMJT said...

Looking good!

julie. said...

oh wow, look at you guys go! I hear you on the painting issue. Even ONE ROOM is like a full week job. After all the prep, the painting, waiting between coats, touch ups etc!!! That said, I have some painting to do this Summer and still have yet to get motivated! Would you ever consider painting your fireplace? I love how your brick goes up to the ceiling, that's so cool. Luckily, when we moved into our current place the fireplace was already painted so I didn't have to agonize over it, just repainted in my color of choice. I think it's very scary to paint over original brick. If you ever read the blog "The Brick House" they painted their brick fireplace a dark gray and I LOVE how it looks...thinking of doing mine that way...
http://www.the-brick-house.com/2008/06/fireplace-update.html

RANCHO COCOA said...

Erin - Thanks! You'll hear all about it on Tuesday, I'm sure.

Julie - we keep going back and forth on painting the brick or not. We've seen it on blogs where it looks ok (off hand, I'm thinking Door Sixteen). Our worry is that it will look a little bit "institutional", you know what I mean? If anything, I think we'll try to get all that soot build up off the front of the fireplace. Also, we have that big, bulky, chiseled-looking mantel piece...we're not sure what to do with that yet. I'm worried about what to do about the holes that will be left after the heavy bolts/screws are taken out of the brick. Anyways, we'll take a look at Brick House...thanks for the tip!

-R A O U L

nichole said...

I can't wait to see what the finished and decorated room will look like! I need to paint my bedroom, but I have been dragging my feet about it.. I just don't have a place to put all of my bedroom furniture!

Looks fabulous so far! Great Work!

RANCHO COCOA said...

Thanks, Nichole! Hopefully the end result will live up to what we have in mind. We're playing around with furniture arrangement and already we see that we'll have to maybe replace some items, since there are now some pieces that clash with the new color on the walls. Also, we're wanting to buy some new prints to frame and put up on the mantle...so, we'll see how decorating goes in the meantime. Good luck with your bedroom! Hopefully you'll find space for your furniture when the time comes (or else cover everything in plastic and maybe work around it?)

Cheers!