You know what they say, once everything is sanded down you’re ready for the finishing touches. And since we did such a great job on making sure the walls and ceiling were as smooth as a baby’s behind, we were ready… for some paint!
Let’s hear that music (yeah, it looks like she’s either eating or blowing a bulb):
First things first. After all that sanding action we ended the mudding with, I made sure the walls and ceiling were as dust-free as possible. I first went over them with a soft brush, to get the most of it off already, and then went over everything with a moist rag.
Before firing up our brushes and rolls, I went through all the inner corners with a little acrylate caulk. I put in just enough to make sure every little crack was covered, and because it’s semi-elastic (and you can paint over it), it should give just that little bit more. It’s a tip I got from people that make a living painting, so I listen and learn.
As with every paint job we did so far, first a coat of primer went up. The paint and primer we used was Mathys Paracem Deco, a recommendation we got from a local paint and wallpaper store where we got our paint.
The technique is the same as usual: first use a brush to paint the edges where you can’t use your roll, then use your roll while the paint you brushed on is still wet to paint around 1 meter by 1 meter. Make sure you’ve got enough paint on it, then roll up and down in your square in a W-motion to start spreading the paint. With that done, roll left to right and back to smear the paint open, and finish by going up and down again to even everything out once more. Now go to an adjacent square and do the same, preferably before your previous square has dried up. That way you can overlap the edges, which will have as result in the end you won’t be able to see where one square ended and another started. (I really should take some pictures of this next time, promised).
First the ceiling received some lovin’…
… and then the walls.
We chose to paint the walls in this kind of yellowish green that’s actually called “Almost Green”. The store had the primer mixed to about the same colour, so that we’d probably do with a coat of paint less on the walls. One can always hope, right.
On a side note:
Camouflage in the kitchen!
With the primer applied I started putting tape on the walls to create that perfect straight line.
And we’re off to paint!
Again, first the ceiling, then the walls were done (working top down). We ended up with 3 coats in total, 1 primer and 2 paint, which is what I expected to end up with anyway. The paint was a real joy to work with: it smeared open really easily, covered up as expected (although I think I laid it on a bit too thin to be honest), and best of all, I didn’t end up all speckled up in paint!
One thing I won’t be using any more however is the tape. Even though we bought the expensive, should-totally-not-stick-or-leave-glue-residual, was-made-specifically-for-this-purpose-and-to-be-applied-on-fragile-paint-coats, it did stick and it did leave glue residual or some of the underlying paint came back off with it. Maybe something was wrong with our roll, but it simply meant more frustration and time lost instead of making the job easier.
It ends up looking something like this:
Almost ready to get the cupboards in! Now, what do you think about the colour? What would you choose?