Let’s Freshen Up the Guest Room!


So I couldn’t help but give a small tease in the last post about the guest room tour. I wrote that post in my just finished painting the room glory – completely spattered with paint and a little loopy from the fumes. Ahh, that’s the way to do it. So I put out a bunch of teasers for a pretty subtle change actually. Hope it doesn’t let you down and the pictures show the difference.

So it all started Saturday morning. Eric was going to be gone all day on Saturday so it was the time to buckle down to work and get the room painted! The night before we had moved all the furniture out of the room. Now I just needed to get all of my tools in place and taping off a few places.

This taping job was me being lazy. I didn’t want to unscrew the curtain rod hangers in fear paint would get in them, blah blah blah. Me being lazy.

These were not me being lazy. The glory of living in an older home is finding things about its previous owners. They are famous for being even lazier than me and painting over all the outlets, not only cementing them to the wall but also clogging some of the plug holes. So after trying to get these off the wall, I turned to my tape and said heck with it. There they stayed.

They also make a few great tools to make the process go by faster, if you aren’t a pro who doesn’t tape or need any special tools except for their brush. The edger and corner tools eliminate almost all taping and unevenness in painting.

Now I was all ready to go. I like to do all the edging and detail work. That is the most time consuming. Here it is with the first coat.

Then it was time for the walls, where you get the first exciting moment of great impact! Here is a shot to show the contract. It is subtle, but so nice and bright.

Here it is with the first coat done. Looking a little splotchy, but that is why I always go with two coats. Even if you buy the “special” paint that guarantees only one coat. I think they lie.

This is the first time that I did both coats in one day. I thought you had to wait a whole day between coats. Not sure where that fun false fact came from. You don’t. I waited more like 2-3 hours and was ready to go again! Now the after pictures!
Having a hard time seeing the difference? It is a little hard. This color choice was pretty hard for me. I am a huge color girl. I like bright patterns and colors everywhere. This didn’t really happen in this room. It is weird. Each room took on its own entity that I couldn’t fight. This one came out a bit more subdued than I would have ever guessed but I love it. Since it is our guest room, we didn’t want it to be really overwhelming. We wanted it to be calm, relaxing, and a guest haven for our visitors. Somewhere they can just take a breath in. Hence the calmer colors. I am working to infuse the fun pops of color though 🙂 I have to!
So ultimately, we went with a similar color. I wanted to brighten up the walls using a semi-gloss. I don’t like to listen to the rules of what sheens to use in rooms. I almost always go with semi. It is easier to clean and just makes rooms so bright and cheery. This room needed it. The paint color wasn’t bad, just kind of plain. It was also full of scratches and holes. Since we don’t have the original paint color there was no touching up.
Here are a few before and after shots with all the furniture loaded back in. Before on the left, after on the right.
Before on top. After on bottom.
Before & After
I love it! A brighter, fresher room. It is like a peachy tan and it works. At first, it was a little disappointing because it wasn’t a dramatic change. Then, reasoning with myself I realized it was just what the room needed. What do you think?