I remember when we looked at our house for the first time. When I saw the master bedroom, I thought, "That's gotta change!!!" The walls were olive green with an odd texture and then baby blue along the top where the ceiling recesses.
Maybe that combination was exciting to someone at some point but I found it ugly and depressing. It was such a sad, dark room!
The first thing that needed to be addressed was the texture on the walls. I still had the in-line sander my father had loaned me so I got to work smoothing those suckers out. As I worked my way around the room, I realized why someone had texturized the walls- it was a really bad way of covering up shoddy patch jobs. Clearly there used to be wall sconces. Instead of doing a proper repair, this is what was done to cover it up:
Turns out it wasn't just the sconces, there were cracks that hadn't been correctly filled. The door handle apparently went through a wall as well and there was another awful patch job.
What I thought would take a week start to finish dragged on and on and on. The sander is 30 lbs and I methodically went over every spot a dozen times- first with low grit, then with high grit to truly smooth it out. Here's a picture of what it looked like when I had sanded it (left side) compared to what was originally there (right side). I had so many bruises on my legs from going up and down the step ladder!
My body ached and there was dust EVERYWHERE!!!
It didn't take long for me to be coated in the stuff. The mask was hot but an absolute necessity. The sander and the air compressor were extremely loud. No two ways about it, this was miserable work. The room looked worse, not better, and it felt like I was never going to finish.
It was around this time that I started to consider the master bathroom which had the same treatment, but in a reddish color. There were worse problems than just bad patch jobs though. If anything oily got on the walls, it would not come out. Previous owners had hung a picture in the bathroom in a rather odd spot- kind of low and close to an outlet. Turns out it was covering this:
This is what the wall looked like when we pulled the vanity away. Blech! There was no way I could get the stains out because of the way the wall texture absorbed oil. I didn't like the treatment to begin with, but I really don't understand why anyone would do this in a wet room! It was like a giant, dirty sponge.
I discovered more cracks, one in particular ran almost the whole length of the wall.
Sanding the bathroom was just as miserable as the bedroom. Even though I only intended on tackling the bedroom, I didn't want to paint it and then have it ruined when I eventually got to the bathroom and all that dust was flying. It just had to be done in one fell swoop. It didn't take long for the bathroom to look like the surface of Mars.
By now the whole master suite was a mess, nothing was functional, and it felt like I'd never get things back together.
After weeks and weeks and weeks of sanding, patching, repairing, and sanding again, it was finally time to paint. I wanted light, and bright. It had to coordinate with the tile work in the bathroom which actually has a lot of beige and grey. I ended up going with Benjamin Moore's Calming Cream. After years of dealing with walls that couldn't effectively be cleaned or wiped down, I was on the verge of going for gloss but my guy at Ace Hardware talked me back from the ledge. He knew I'd done a lot of repair work and the gloss would have highlighted any remaining imperfections. He suggested eggshell instead and he was bang on about that.
NOW for the fun part!!! It was so very satisfying to roll the first of the primer onto those dark walls. It was like night and day. All that work I'd done to smooth out the texture suddenly came to fruition. It looked like new construction.
The only certain things in life are death, taxes, and the fact I will always misjudge the color of my ceilings. I truly thought the bathroom ceiling was white, but next to that pristine primer, it was clearly beige. Just for fun, I discovered a couple of spots where old paint was peeling due to steam, so that needed to be sanded down as well. This never-ending project was set back another day as I repaired and painted the ceiling super white. I thought the wall color would make the biggest difference but all that light bouncing off the pristine ceiling suddenly brightened the place immeasurably.
Just when I thought I was finished, I noticed spots where the paint had come off along with the edging tape. My heart broke a little. So I went back and spent a few hours with a teeny, tiny paint brush touching up these spots. I didn't want any evidence of the previous, awful wall color.
The master bathroom went from this:
To this:
This:
To this:
Before doing this makeover, I really detested the vanity lights. Probably because I always had to turn it on to see anything in there! They looked awkward and maybe a little dated. I couldn't wait to replace them, but the budget was already pretty tight, so I just cleaned everything up and reinstalled the unit. Now I actually love the lights! They look like they were made for this bathroom. I think they are unique and elegant now. I can't expressed how pleasantly surprised I am with the difference, not to mention the cost savings!
The apex (where the ceiling pitched, just by the window) was an absolute beast to work on. I needed Brent nearby to steady the ladder so it wouldn't slide around the bathtub. Once I was up there, I was wedged in and couldn't turn around. It was hot as blazes near the ceiling and there's a light fixture to contend with to boot. Not to mention balancing precariously on a ladder while using heavy equipment was physically taxing. I was so relieved when the apex was finished!
The apex (where the ceiling pitched, just by the window) was an absolute beast to work on. I needed Brent nearby to steady the ladder so it wouldn't slide around the bathtub. Once I was up there, I was wedged in and couldn't turn around. It was hot as blazes near the ceiling and there's a light fixture to contend with to boot. Not to mention balancing precariously on a ladder while using heavy equipment was physically taxing. I was so relieved when the apex was finished!
Now that the bathroom was well in hand, I returned to the original project, which was the bedroom. I actually don't have many photos of my progress on painting the bedroom because at this point I just wanted this sucker done.
I painted like a maniac and just about dropped from exhaustion. Laying on my back, I noticed the ceiling was grey... GREY!!! WHO PAINTS A CEILING GREY!?!? Especially with blue and green walls? Another setback, but another necessity. At least I had the paint on hand from the bathroom ceilings! Just like the bathroom, the white ceilings brightened the whole room.
The walls and the ceiling were looking like new construction and I was so, so, SO happy with the result! However, all that fresh paint really made the baseboards stand out, and not in a good way. They looked pretty beat up, even behind the bed, and so I gave them a couple of fresh coats.
The baseboards went from this:
To this:
Bada bing that made a difference!!! The bedroom went from this:
To this:
Oh yeah, there was a random outlet cover hiding a hole in the wall to the right of the outlet. Another patch and paint job just for fun!
Before:
After:
I splurged on new outlet covers (half of the old ones were broken anyway) and new vent covers. Turns out large, decorative vent covers can cost up to $500. I was floored. For days I searched in-store and online for something the right size that didn't look builder grade and kept coming up dry. Finally I found one that was only $30 and I actually love the design (you can see it on the right side of the picture). As much work as the rest of the bedroom was, I'm particularly proud of that vent cover. The original cover hadn't even been installed right. It wasn't properly centered and so one side didn't have a hole to hold a screw. It was always falling down. I patched the old job, measured, marked and leveled that vent so it was perfect. I know it's back in a corner and shouldn't matter, but it's visible right when you walk in the room and the old vent just drove me nuts.
I also had plans for that decorative wall-hanging above our bed. I was going to strip the paint to smooth it down and then paint it black. It had blended in with the wall too much before. However, I found that next to the light-colored walls it stands out and well, I decided to leave it. Or maybe I was just tired of this never-ending project! Ha ha!
Brent and I spent a Saturday getting the last of the tools put away, cleaning out the paint brushes, dusting off the air compressor and hooking up the water lines to the sinks. I took a looong shower and found Ireland standing by the bath when I emerged. "Mom, it looks so HAPPY in here now!!!" She nailed my sentiments perfectly.
There are some projects that upon completion I think, 'Why didn't I do this sooner?' This project is not one of those. I knew going into it that it would be a beast. I'm glad I did the bathroom at the same time and took care of that awful wall texture all at once. However, I'm not anxious to take on any house projects any time soon. This one was so physically exhausting and I often found myself resenting the previous homeowners for their carelessness and shoddy workmanship.
The bedroom looks a third bigger than it did. Pictures that hung there before suddenly look more expensive. It truly is a "calming cream" and I love retreating here at the end of the day. Eventually I want to do crown molding with rope lighting, some nice nightstands, chairs for the end of the bed and oh yeah, a bay window would be lovely! But that will have to wait for another day. I'm so glad we don't have to turn on the bathroom lights in the middle of the day because it is awash with natural light. I've always bathed the girls in the giant tub but Brent and I actually use it now too. I'm not sure what I'll work on next, although I definitely have a list! For now, I'm happy to just enjoy what I've accomplished in the master suite for a while.
