The Painting

 Back in Minneapolis, my mom and I braved Covid to dash into Home Depot and grab all the paint cards we thought might work. I winnowed my choices - for both walls and baseboards - down, until I had three choices for walls (and about eight for baseboards - that project won't happen until after a new floor is in, so those colors can wait). 

After perusing Consumer Reports, I opted to go with Behr Marquee, the premium Home Depot brand. And despite it being a "primer-top-coat", I also opted to go for primer - did you see that purple wall?! Before leaving Minneapolis, I got three samples in three shades of white. 

We got into the house on Saturday afternoon, and by Sunday night had enough primer on the walls to put the samples up. One was eliminated for having too much creamy yellow (left sample below) - it was a beautiful color, but I was aiming for something more like a plaster white. Deciding between Night Blooming Jasmine and Whisper White (who comes up with paint color names?!) took until Monday night, but I eventually chose Whisper White in matte as my wall color. (No, I don't remember if it's center or right anymore! I think its the center color. Also, that wall has TWO coats of primer on it!)

But let me back up. We began by priming. And priming. and priming. All of the colored walls - the three (3!!) shades of purple and the green - required two coats of primer. And frankly, I probably could have done three coats.

The photos above are the first coat of primer in the living room and on the kitchen wall. You can see why we took one look at that (and at the edging, where I had essentially painted two coats) and said, "MORE PRIMER". All in all we used nearly 5 gallons of primer - I have about 3/4 of a gallon left and here's hoping it will be enough to prime the remaining kitchen walls.

Next I painted the ceilings ceiling white - they were the same cream color as the non-colorful walls. And it sucked. Here's what I learned painting ceilings: full drop cloth coverage is necessary. Be very generous with your paint - but if your ceiling has texture, not too generous or you will get ceiling drips. You must paint in daylight; artificial light will not let you know if you have gotten full coverage. Even with an extender roller, your arms will ache and want to fall off your shoulders, and your neck will kill you. Everything is terrible when you paint ceilings. Good news: ceiling paint is a one coat and done, if your ceiling is already light. If your ceiling is dark, hire a painter.

You can sort of get a sense of what painting the ceiling white did for the space - here both walls have been primed, but on the left, the ceiling is the original color, and on the right it is the white.

And finally, the fun stuff! Or, putting the actual final coats on the wall. I love this color, I love the flatness of the paint, I love my bright white space. My dad was super skeptical of my desire for a white house (whatever, yes, I'm a millennial) and was really rooting for some color. I kept reminding him that my furniture is almost all deep, saturated color, and I have plenty of art for color on the walls and also just dad - New Mexico light does such good things with white walls. He came around eventually - plus I reminded him that he doesn't have to live in this white house!

We did a major push to get everything painted while my uncle was here to help paint and unload the truck, so I have no pictures of the space without furniture. But look at all that light! Everything seems bigger! It is so soothing. I am so glad I went with white (sorry not sorry dad!) I describe my interior design aesthetic as "sort of Scandinavian", and apparently there is an actual style of house design in New Mexico called "Southwestern Scandinavian" and I am definitely here for that aesthetic.

(Not that you can tell from these photos which are all from the living room, but: everything except for the kitchen and the bathroom was painted before furniture got moved in. The bathroom walls are primed; the kitchen is like, 3/4 of the way primed. The bedrooms, the hallway, the laundry. We made a timing-based executive decision that the closets will get painted another time - a project for the second half of 2021, perhaps? They should get painted before a new floor goes in, for sure).

That's all for now! Next post: floorsssssss.