Inspiration: The Living Room

 The easiest room in the house to modify was the living room. Mostly because it needed very little done.

The floors had been refinished, there were no defects or damages, all it needed was a few coats of paint. We didn't mind the wainscoting, although the fake wood paneling was definitely a trend in this house. Jacob and I agreed to paint over the fake wood and make it white, and to paint the upper half of the walls teal. For this project, we used:

- Martha Stewart paint
- Cheap tape
- Roller brush
- Small brush

I was very impressed with the paint, it went on smooth and dried very quickly. I had a lot of difficulty with the trim because I chose to only tape the top of the wainscoting and areas around the windows. After two coats, the top of the wall was good to go. However, when I pulled up the tape, huge chunks of paint came with it! There were also several areas where the paint had leaked under and adhered the tape to the wall. It was a major disappointment and looked awful!

 We proceeded to paint the wainscoting with our white indoor/outdoor paint & primer mix, and discovered that we would need at least three coats to cover the fake wood properly. We paid better attention when taping this time and sure enough when we went to peel it off, chunks of paint were removed. Frustrated, we spot painted the areas that were affected, but it was nearly impossible to get the areas around the trim to look right. After going back and forth between teal and white paint another three times, we gave in. Surely no one would notice once the room was full of our things, pictures were hung, etc. Sure enough, as we began filling the room with furniture, none of the trim was even noticeable. When you're in an empty room with nothing to look at but the walls, it is easy to get wrapped up in making it perfect.

We did learn a few lessons from this room. Because it was the first room we really did any work on, we had not yet established a budget or any real plan. I think that we made a great choice in using the Martha Stewart paint, however, the white indoor/outdoor paint & primer was way too strong for me. We had all of the windows open plus two fans, and I had to make trips outside every 5 minutes for fresh air. Next time we will definitely use indoor only paint, even if it means we need to use more than three coats. Another lesson we learned is that we will never again cheap out on tape. No more tan tape ever! Lastly, we learned that although attention to detail is important when painting, it is okay to take short cuts.