Parlor/Living Room Makeover

The biggest project we have tackled yet! 

Painting the living room and parlor room.

Seems so easy, simply painting the living room and parlor room.

Well, first we had to get rid of the dropped ceiling...and make a few holes in the process.

Sydney was my mesh tape helper.

She helped cut the tape while I held it.  It took me three days just to tape and mud the areas I could reach in the living room.  Sure, some of it was just the kids getting in the way or needing things, like food.  :)

But most of it was due to the sheer amount of cracks in our plaster walls.  While more were very small, if you just mud (no tape) they will crack through the new mud.  So, each one needs tape, mud, sanding, mud, sanding, mud and finally sand. 

We joked about needing mesh SHEETS instead of just mesh tape  (wouldn't you know it, I actually found mesh sheets at Menards after we were done mudding.)

In addition to mudding cracks, there were the numerous nail holes to be filled. 

Here's a picture of my favorite nail.

It's important to use the right size nail for any project...apparently the previous owers liked to cure meat in the living room.

Our awesome pastor came and helped us on two of his days off.  He tackled the ceiling and Wayne did the upper walls where I could not reach.  When completed, I noticed our living room ceiling looked like it had a cool abstract cartoon character.

I also worked on adding some trim to our built-in bookcase. 

here it is without.

a few cuts with the miter box later, and...

tada! trim!  This helped give the bookcase a start and end point on the wall.  I wanted it left white and the rest of the wall painted my way cool accent color.

Some more of the "extreme mudding"

(sounds like a sports show on Spike)

Big gapping hole in parlor room patched and mudded

And, my ACCENT WALL!!!!  well, in progress anyway.

I know what you're thinking.  "It's a what!?!  WHAT IS IT!!!"  (rex from toy story)

It's a portion of Nairobi where I hung out when I went to town.  The circles are round abouts and I just love how the streets (where I hung out) were not set on due north and south, making them a graphically interesting artwork.

Eventually, I want to find a cheap left over slab of some sort of stone counter top to put on the radiator to hold a few knick knacks and photos from our missions trips.

this is my accent wall.  the main walls in both living room and parlor room are a soft yellow green (somewhere between a golden delicious and granny smith apple).  On the one hand a bold color, but soft.

The accent wall (above) is a pretty accurate color picture.  A medium, edgy green. 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE how the rooms turned out.  I smile everytime I walk into them.  They are the last big spaces to be changed.  I am so happy that the places I spend the most time during the day are now reflecting my style.  (pale, soft blue in a flat finish is just bleh).

\

on a "how to" note.  We used Frog Tape to get the map on the wall.  I've seen adds for it on TV and how it is supposed to be treated specially to not leak/bleed paint underneath it.  Well...

womp, womp.

It did not work as promied and it cost at least twice as much as the old blue tape.  Some places worked out nicely and were very crisp, but most bleed like above.  While I'm sure some of it was user error, I would suggest not spending the extra money.  (it also recommended removing and reapplying new tape for each coat of paint!?!?! who has time to do that?)  so, anyway.  it took quite a bit of touchup work, but I love my Nairobi map.

the inspiration for that came from an episode of Summer Showdown on HGTV a few years ago.