Painted second bedroom

So, here’s what consumed 48 hours of the weekend. J. and I tag-teamed the painting while taking turns minding the kids, who will be moving into this room; I finished off the final coat of the walls on Saturday night and the gloss around the windows and doors on Sunday. This picture was taken a few hours before the carpeters arrived.

Doing the painting ourselves and using up some old cans of paint saved us four hundred quid, so it was worth doing. But watching the professionals do our lounge and hallway last year (which were bigger jobs and would have been a pain in the neck to do ourselves) improved our technique. I always used to mask every edge with tape, a laborious process which was fraught with peril when peeling it off at the end; there would always have to be touch-ups. And I used to sand all the frames and skirting before applying a new coat of gloss, which would take ages. Forget all that. If you have a steady hand with a brush and can paint in a straight line, and if the wall and skirting colours don't contrast too much, you don’t need to mask; and if you undercoat over the old gloss paint, you don’t need to sand. Also, matt paint is touch dry in an hour, and the second coat can go on right after that.

It was also an opportunity to listen to lots of old albums on the iPod speaker. But I wouldn’t want to do it day after day as my job.

18 September 2012 · Journal

I would have been much more interested in the outcome if this had been a family inclusive project and the kids had taken part, rather than being minded.

Added by JJ on 18 September 2012.

Well, once they’ve moved in, who knows what will happen! I suspect it will depend on whether big brother leaves his pens and pencils lying around for little sister to experiment with.

Added by Rory on 19 September 2012.

I feel guilty for delurking to say that room looks bloody awesome, but there it is! :)

Added by Shauna on 28 September 2012.

Missed your comment for a bit amongst all the incoming spam, Shauna...

Thanks, though. The previous wallpaper-stripping certainly helped!

Added by Rory on 1 October 2012.