Turning the Master Bedroom Gray

Aaron and I had really wanted to get the two bedrooms painted before we moved into our house...  Unfortunately, with the closing getting delayed and the furniture that we were refinishing still needing work, we didn't get it done.  However, the terribly ugly orange sponge paint in the bedroom just needed to go...

Here's a reminder of what the master bedroom paint originally looked like...

We bought paint soon after we moved in, but just hadn't gotten around to actually doing the job.  The paint we bought was Glidden's Duo (Paint + Primer); the color was called "Quiet Rain" and we selected it because it was a light gray that still was light and bright, not dull.

Two weekends ago, on Sunday (Nov. 25), Aaron got started turning the bedroom gray...  He taped off the ceiling because the ceiling paint is in good shape and we didn't want to deal with that job! 

I had seen a post on Pinterest about how to paint clean lines so I told him how to do that to make sure the gray doesn't bleed onto the ceiling.  It's really quite simple: 1) Put up your Frogtape or painter's tape on the surface you want to protect. (In our case, the tape went on the ceiling.); 2) Get out the can of paint that matches the surface you want to protect.  (In our case, we got out the can of ceiling paint.); 3) Use a brush to paint in the seam of the tape and wall/area to be painted.  (In our case, we painted the seam/corner so that half the paint ended up on the tape on the ceiling and the other half ended up on the walls to be painted.)  4) Once the paint has dried completely, start painting with your new color in the area you want to change!  (In our case, we waited and then painted the gray on the walls.)  The reason you add that original paint into the seam is because some paint always seeps through and this ensures that the paint that gets past the tape will match the color that you are trying to protect!  Check out the blog where the pin came from: Ask Anna!

Anyway, Aaron followed the instructions from "Ask Anna" and moved onto painting the gray paint onto the walls.  He cut in the edges with an edging tool (it was kind-of like a square sponge - it is meant to give you a clean line but I know it won't work perfectly so we taped anyway) and a paint brush - he would use the edging tool then clean it up with a paint brush since the edging tool would leave excess paint behind. 

Left: Aaron using the edging tool to cut in; Right: Aaron cleaning up the excess paint with the paint brush.

I went up to help him with the rolling.  I learned how to paint properly from my Pop-Pop - you start by making an "M" (or a "W") with the roller, then spreading out the paint from there, being sure to finish with the up-and-down motion to make sure you get a consistent texture on the walls.  (Sorry, no pictures because I haven't perfected the self-photo yet...)  We finished the first coat on late Sunday afternoon but didn't have time to a second coat...

Aaron completed the second coat last Thursday (Nov. 29); he started while I was still at school and finished while I worked on some schoolwork.  Unfortunately, when we looked at the paint, it just looks too blue; I know gray often has a blue hue and the bedding that we are matching has a slight bluish hue, but this paint just looks blue - a very light blue and one might say that the blue has a hint of gray in it, but it just wasn't not the right color.  The photo to the right shows the color after the two coats - it's hard to really see the color in a photo and it all depends on the screen you're looking at, so just take my word for the fact that it looked blue and not gray...

Aaron and I decided to get a new can of paint, figuring that one coat would be enough to fix the color (since it was already one solid color and close to the color we were aiming for).  With that, we headed to Lowe's on Saturday morning...  (We got the first cans of paint from Home Depot; we had picked the best color sample that we could find at Home Depot, after quite some time checking all the swatches, so it was time to give Lowe's a shot!)


We checked out all the various paint swatches that Lowe's had to offer - they mainly carry Olympic paints and Valspar Paints (including a few special "series" of Valspar like the allen + roth colors).  After a careful selection process, the paint swatch we selected was called "Simply Gray" - since the first paint had turned out blue, we figured the name of the paint was a good sign!

The swatch was by Valspar so we went with the Valspar Signature Paint + Primer. (The swatch specifically stated that the color was onlyguaranteed if mixed with Valspar Signature paints, so we made sure to follow the instructions - no more accidentally-blue walls for us!)

 

I took a photo of the two paint swatches.  The original paint (from Home Depot) was the Glidden paint and we got the shade named "Quiet Rain"; the new paint (from Lowe's) is the Valspar paint and we got the shade named "Simply Gray".  The original paint square is on the left and the new paint square is on the right.  I took the picture on the blue kitchen countertops to try to show that the original paint has a blue hint to in, but it didn't work out real well.  Again, the colors get all screwy on the computer (and since I'm just using my phone's camera for the pictures), but you can see a big difference in the samples...  The new paint is quite a bit darker (but not actually dark, just darker in comparison), but we thought that might help make it obvious that it's gray, not blue.

 



Yesterday morning, Aaron and I put a coat of the new paint onto the walls.  Aaron did the cutting in around the edges and I followed behind with the roller.  I paused mid-way to get a picture of the edges done in the new color with the center of the wall in the old paint so that you could see the difference on the wall...

 

The best way to describe the new color is just plain old gray which is what we wanted...  We got the single coat of the new paint on the walls in about an hour and a half.  My parents were coming over to help with some projects, so we got up early and managed to get the painting done just before they came.  We still haven't decided if that single coat will be enough...  We need to get a good look in the daytime so that we can see what it will look like in natural sunlight!  Anyway, check out what it looked like once we had it all painted (in the comparison photos below)...

 

And just for the side-by-side comparison...  The left photo is the original paint and the right photo is the new paint.  As I've said a bunch of times, it's hard to see the difference in the photos, but you can see it a little bit - it's much more obvious in person!