Be Our Guest

I've got to admit that the guest bedroom has been bothering me for a long time.  When we moved in, both the ceilings and walls were badly damaged and painted a shiny, yellow-brownish white.  There were no baseboards, and the quarter-round that was there in their stead had been abused by countless sloppy paint jobs.  But I thought that once I painted the walls, I'd stop getting that sad, icky feeling when I walked in there.  It didn't happen.  I tried rearranging the furniture (all of which I hate), thinking that might change the vibe.  No dice.  I tried the big jute rug I bought in October, hoping that maybe a nice neutral ground was all it needed.  Nope.  

But this weekend I figured out what was so awful in there.  I'll provide the following photo and see if you're smarter than I am:

I'd tried all my tricks: new wall color (which I like), fresh white trim, new blinds, you name it.  But if you look at the picture above you'll see what I now know was the root of all the evil in there:  the ceiling color.  Here's another view, this time over the entry door, so you can see the contrast between the trim color and the ceiling color:

I knew it was bad, but I didn't know HOW bad until Friday, when I second-coated the walls (just one month after finishing the first coat-- whatever, I don't have a lot of free time).  Then I moved all the furniture into the center of the room and began to cut in around the vents and the walls.  Here's a view in which I've cut in with the new white ceiling paint.  I think you'll agree the difference is drastic:

Please forgive if the paint has a bit of a pink tinge-- it goes on pink so you can see where you've painted, then dries white (brilliant!), and I was too excited to wait for total drying before I took the picture.  I mean, it is a HUGE difference.  

Yesterday I cut in again (the ceiling clearly hadn't been painted in a long time and it was pretty thirsty) and first-coated it.  Again, once I realized what a major change it was, I couldn't stand to wait for it to dry completely before I photographed-- but I think the following photo, pink-tinged and all, shows how much more light the room seems to get with its new matte white ceiling:

[And don't worry-- that boob light is on its way out.  The light switch in that bedroom died, and we don't want to mess around with the electrical in this old house (last time we tried to change a fixture, we found ELEVEN WIRES stuffed into a junction box, and I'm not trying to burn this place down) so this week we're calling the electrician to 1) hang our new dining room fixture, 2) fix the guest bedroom light switch, 3) hang the guest bedroom fixture I bought months ago, and 4) uncouple the electrical outlets from the sconces in the bathroom so we can change them out for something slightly less hideous.]

Today, I second-coated the ceiling and here it is drying in all of its pepto-pink glory:

  

Oh, notice anything else new in that photo?  BASEBOARDS!  We're half-done with the install at the moment-- we sprayed some Great Stuff (jury's out on whether or not it is actually great) in some HUGE gaps between the wall and floor on the south wall, and now we have to wait for it to fully cure before we can install baseboard over it.  Here's a picture so you can see what I'm talking about:

 

See it there at the base of the right-hand wall?  When we sprayed it we didn't realize it needed eight hours to cure-- we just got all excited after we pried off the ugly quarter-round and started spraying it in there-- and you can't sand it flat until after it cures.

So I was hoping to have a completed guest bedroom to show you tonight, but I think we'll be baseboard-ing that wall tomorrow.  After that, curtains, rug, maybe cute slipper chair, maybe I sell the old furniture on Craigslist and buy myself a cool midcentury dresser or a nice antique writing table.  Slow and steady wins the race.