Monday, August 18, 2014

Updating the Office

I have been hard at work this past week refreshing the office with new paint and stain and accessories!  The office was formerly painted a pale gray.  But it was so light that it always looked bluish to me.  It was supposed to be gray! 

It has been almost three years since I painted it, and the flat paint hasn’t really worked for me.  I can’t get the marks off the walls, so I figured it was time that I could try again.  This time I picked a nice medium gray color (Steeple Gray by Olympic) that was a shade darker and more gray than the previous color (Silver Threads by Olympic).  I also bought satin paint, so I could easily wipe it clean.  After clearing the room, I had to carefully maneuver our massive desk halfway into the room so I could crawl under it to paint the back wall.  #giantdeskproblems  Then I painted the rest of the room, moved the desk back, and painted what was left.  :)

Once the walls were finished, I decided to put a couple coats of polyurethane on our desk top (since it was all cleared off).  There were a couple of worn places where we run our computer mice around.  So I lightly sanded it with 320 grit and brushed on a couple coats of satin poly.  Then I realized that the rest of the desk was gloss poly.  Ugh!  So I had to go buy more poly and start over with the sanding and applying.  Needless to say, three days into this and not having our desk, I was getting frustrated so I quit after one coat of gloss.  It really needs one more coat, but I’ll just put that back on my to-do list.  Haha! :) 

While I was out shopping for polyurethane and lamp shades for the bedroom (since I stole to give to the living room) I spied a gray lamp with a gray trimmed drum shade!  I knew that would look awesome on my desk with the new paint color.  It really freshens up the space! 

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Since I had the bookcase emptied and pulled into the other room, I decided now was a good time to refinish it as well.  I had always planned to stain it Bombay Mahogany to match everything else in the room.  And even though is particle board with a paper backing, I transformed it with a couple coats of poly-shade.  I think it turned out pretty nice!  It certainly looks more expensive than before, and it now matches the desk.

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The gray paint also looks great with the velvet chair in the corner.

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All in all, I am happy with how the room turned out.  Hopefully we won’t have to paint again until this room becomes something besides an office! :)  Now, I can turn my attention to other projects, including some new art for the den.  I’ll be back, but in the meantime, you can find me here:

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