It's a Horvath's Life: Den Reveal

So, I told you last time about the trim painting in the den. Well, after I decided to paint the trim (which I had been meaning to do for some time now) I realized that it would be foolish to put all the furniture back without painting the walls! So, five color samples later (and $15 wasted that could have been spent on new artwork or lamps or something important!) we finally arrived at a color decision. (Thanks facebook friends who chimed in with your opinions!) The color we chose is an Olympic stock color called “Cosmic Rays”. It’s a smidge lighter than the blue color in the couch fabric. And it has a little green in it. But not too much. :) Just right. It looks pale and fresh and beautiful in the daylight. If only we had more daylight in the den! And it deepens to a moody grayish blue green in the evenings with just lamplight.

Source: Olympic Paints

After settling on a color, I prepped the walls for painting. Spackling holes and cracks and cleaning the spider webs from the corners. I am a seriously good housekeeper, clearly. ;) In the process of spackling and cleaning the walls for painting, I came to realize just how awful the walls in the den are! Truly, a spackling nightmare. I don’t know what the previous owners have been applying to the walls down here, but there are spackle spots all over the place, even down near the floor, all in rows… What on earth? (Not to mention the silicone caulk that they had used to caulk some kind of thermal covering in the windows. I had to scrape all that off, too!) Combine that with the patch job from previous water damage next to the sliding glass door and you have a big mess of old patch jobs. Well, I added my own to the mix, hopefully mine will look a little better than everyone else’s over time. Then I took up my fancy shmancy new 6” Whizz roller! This little tool is designed for edging jobs and painting small things like cabinets and furniture, but I’ve seen it on HGTV so many times, I just had to try it! They use it to paint walls on Designed to Sell, so it must be okay to do that. I get all of my information from television. :)

Despite the fact that I had to reload the roller like a million times more often than a regular one, I like it. It’s lightweight and small so it doesn’t make my arm as tired as those big ole 12” rollers. Plus I have issues with the big rollers; they get to spinning as I roll them off the wall surface and leave little marks behind. Boo. The Whizz roller is so small that it doesn’t have a lot of momentum and it never goes off spinning crazy when I don’t want it to. :) And I like the finish from the fuzzy interior cover, too. So we (me and the Whizz) put on two coats of paint. Looks good.

Then I spray painted all the outlet covers and their screws white. Too bad you can’t just spray paint the switches and outlets, too. :) White definitely looks better than almond, even if the switches don’t match the covers. After everything was dry, I had to put the room back together. Much needed cleaning ensued; kitty fur was banished from all surfaces. Then tweaking of the accessories… finally, the big reveal!

I’m sure you remember the before, wood trim, off white walls…

And the new and improved after, sporting white trim and a fresh pale blue paint job:

Here’s another angle for your before and after comparison:

A side by side comparison of the fireplace makeover:

So, that’s one more room down on my painting the house list. But naturally, the den isn’t done DONE. :) No room is ever done. Next up on the den project are new roman shades for the windows. I already have the fabric for this one, so hopefully these will be installed sooner rather than later (she says, knowing that possession of supplies makes no difference in completion time due to procrastination). I also have a furniture makeover planned (to replace the black cabinet that is taking over the room) and the second cream chair is almost finished. It will soon be joining its brother down here in the den! Also on my list is to do something about the inside of the fireplace. Like painting it with black fireplace paint? It looks so dingy now, so I’m thinking a fresh coat of paint would unify the look and finish it off nicely. And last but certainly not least, not in my mind anyway… the Floors! The awful brown carpet must go… and flying in to replace it will be warm, yummy laminate floors! Here’s some inspiration for your imagination: