Paint it All White

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Earlier this month I shared that our house was a complete and utter disaster as we moved my office into the former guest room to make way for a playroom (along with a whole variety of other household projects that have been taking over my life).

white painted baskets

I finally got the office cleaned up. At midnight, because let's face it: I can only accomplish things of this magnitude when the boys are asleep.

dark office

As the floor cleared and the bed finally emerged, I realized how painfully dark this room is. I've been planning to lighten up the wall color with a glaze – perhaps a faux leather look – but that requires moving furniture and convincing Nate to help me. I wanted it fixed NOW. Especially those hideous dark bamboo shades. There's more than enough dark wood in here, and my pregnant nesting hormones dictated that those things had to be revamped or tossed immediately.

painting bamboo shades

We're still working with BEHR so I whipped out my latest color sample from them and went to town. I wanted it white. I wanted it ALL white.

painting without tape

I didn't even tape anything off. I just delicately used an edger brush with a spackle spreader and slathered a coat of eggshell Premium Plus Ultra Pure White over every square inch of dark brown. This isn't the first time I've gone all nutso with a paintbrush while Nate slept or worked; I consider this something of a postlude to the fireplace incident, which was also a midnight project on a whim.

finished look after white paint

I threw a quick coat onto those two baskets up top to coordinate. The entire project took one hour from start to finish. I'll admit that it's a little bit clumpy in places. White-washing may have been the better way to go here, with repeated applications of a thinned-down paint to avoid gloppiness in the nooks and crannies. Overall, though, I'm happy with the lightened-up look. Eventually I'll probably run a sander lightly over the blinds and wash them with a lightly-tinted color to give the room a more rustic, beachy feel.

Refresh bamboo shades with a coat of paint. Painted bamboo blinds can brighten a room, or be whitewashed for a more beachy look

 Have you ever painted or redecorated an area on a whim? How did it turn out?

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