Office Progress

I managed to snap one photo of painting in progress – I just shoved the large pieces of furniture into the center of the room (although in hindsight it probably would have been easier to move it all out into the basement living room, since my office is only 10ft x 10ft). After several rounds of spackling and sanding, the walls were in much better condition, thankfully. I did my best to scrub off major stains and irregularities, and took off all the outlet covers and switchplates – some of which had been painted over so many times that I needed a razor blade to get them away from the wall. The original color was a beige-y off-white, so we didn’t bother priming the walls first, although we’ll have to do that in most of the other rooms because they have pretty dark paint colors.

The paint is dry now and I’ve put the major pieces of furniture back, although I still don’t have any art on the walls. Here’s where I’m at:

View from the doorway

View from over by the “cupboard under the stairs” (go check out the house plans I drew up on the House Tour tab, and then marvel at my amazing nerdiness and Harry Potter puns)

We used Benjamin Moore’s Ben paint + primer in Gray Tint. It gave us really good color and coverage, so we only did 1 coat. In the first picture I think it looks like the walls are two different colors, but I promise they’re the same. The second photo is the best representation of the new paint color; it’s exactly what I wanted in natural light, but despite how perfectly gray the swatch looked, in the room it has a bit of a purple tint to it. I think that’s probably because it’s next to the lighter toned floors and the still-beige ceiling, and the lamps I have in the room have soft-white bulbs, which put off a bit of a yellow light. It’s not enough to bother me, but we’ll be using a different light gray for the main basement living space and hopefully that one won’t have the purple undertone.

My to-do list for this room still has quite a few things on it:

• Roman shade for the window
• New, more colorful rug
• Art for the walls
• Hang a bulletin board/magnetic strips for a message/reminders center
• Curtain to create a “door” for the closet
• Paint the bookshelf white
• New knobs for the bookshelf
• A fun colored ottoman or other piece of furniture
• Paint the ceiling white
• Touch up the paint on the trim and door

We’re planning to paint out main living space this weekend, so there are more updates to come. Anyone have a favorite paint color or a preferred brand of paint (especially for covering dark colors?)