Breath of fresh air ...

Yeah. No staged photos here. Just unadulterated truth telling. The process of changing things from blue to white was not easy. Actually, I should say, IS not easy. As I'm still in the big middle of it. If you follow me on instagram, you've already seen the videos of me working on the apartment this weekend. 

I found some really interesting things when I started working on the room. 

1. The room had been wallpapered. In grasscloth of all things! So all this time I thought that the drywall seams were coming apart every 24", no - no, that was wallpaper seams that had just been painted over. 

2. I really hate to paint. But what's worse than painting? Fixing really, REALLY messed up walls from wallpaper coming down, pulling paint with it, in HUGE sections of the wall. 

So, after I spent nearly all day Saturday patching these giant issues with the wall, doing my best to get them completely filled in, my boyfriend Tyler came over to help with the sanding. It took hours to do these walls, and if I'm being honest, there's a part of me that feels like I should have done more than I did. The places I fixed look so good! SO GOOD! Thanks to Tyler, mostly. But there are still seams in the wall from the paper that I haven't fixed - and likely wont. 

Then the primer went up. Now, I have to say this. I told myself I wouldn't but I'm going to. I used Sherwin Williams primer, and you might as well go get a few gallons of milk and paint your walls with that. IT IS TERRIBLE! I spent hours putting multiple coats of primer on the walls, and in the process paint went EVERYWHERE! When paint or primer is that thin, the nap of the roller just won't hold onto it. It was like a Jackson Pollock painting on the drop cloths. Terrible. I will NEVER ever buy it again. 

I promise that I actually worked. Once the primer was up (12-hours after we started) it was time to put up the paint. Also Sherwin Williams, ProMar 200. Also crap.

From the moment that the entire room was back to having light colored walls, I instantly felt more at home. Like I had been pent up inside and was able to finally grab a giant breath of fresh air. 

Proof that I was working. Before I had a nervous break down, I had to do something about the crappy paint from Sherwin Williams. I mean, it's terrible. And it's supposed to be their higher level paint. Can you imagine what ProMar 400 is? I mean, is it like water? How many coats does that take? We aren't talking about paint that's $10/gallon here people. THIS STUFF IS EXPENSIVE! It's supposed to be good, quality paint. It isn't. 

I ended up buying this roller: 

I got mine at Lowes, it was $13 for the pack of 3, plus tax. But they actually did a much better job than the other roller at holding onto paint. Even as I type this, I'm noticing splatters of paint on my arms I didn't see last night! So, moral of the story, if you get stuck with REALLY CRAPPY PAINT from SHERWIN WILLIAMS (can you tell I'm sorta pissed about the amount of money I spent on paint with them and that it was TOTAL GARBAGE) the roller from Purdy might save you from having a nervous break down! 

And we left it like this. Needing yet another coat of paint, but we are on the way there folks! And I couldn't be happier. Stay tuned for all the next installments! And follow along on instagram for videos and more photos!