Saturday, September 17, 2011

The Big Basement Beautification

 After careful consideration, which consisted mostly of me complaining about how dark it was down there, we decided to repaint the basement.
this was our theme--MUCH sunnier!
and to match the theme poster, the new color!

summer day by Sherwin Williams

the old basement. it had an americana theme. i like america, but not americana. if it seems weird that we're doing cuba to replace americana, just remember it could be worse--we could be doing talibana!

the second half of this big project will be some reorganization (much overdue)

here's our practice section on the wall!
There are many steps to painting--it is a nightmare!
1. sample check at the store
2. prime and paint sample on the wall
3. love the result!
4. buy all the supplies
5. wash the walls:
     5a. warm water and a little dishsoap
     5b. warm water (realize the dishsoap isn't coming off!!!! AAAAAAAHHH!!!)
     5c. sand off all the little chunkies painted into the old paint by the former homeowners who failed to adequately prep. before painting.
     5d. warm water (again)
6. tape the moulding
7. lay down plastic
8. mix the primer
9. paint the walls with primer.
10. rinse. wait. repeat.
We're on coat 1.5 of 4 planned coats. I started the first one a couple days ago and got halfway done before it got too obnoxious for me to continue. 

so maybe I was frustrated...
one and a half coats!
Brandon says it's bedtime so we're not going to finish the other half today. Maybe soon it will be perfect down there!

2 comments:

Janelle said...

I was down there a few times when the Andersons still lived there. Like you, I like America, but not really Americana. And I couldn't understand the dark color choice for a windowless basement. I'm excited to see how you brighten it up.

Amit and Marinda Misra said...

At least you can paint! I've kind of been going through an HGTV phase and all I can say is that I can't wait to live somewhere we can actually decorate! For now, I'll just live through you....