Painting an Old House
There were some things I learned during painting that I was not expecting. The first thing being I do NOT like it. Luckily, my parents came in town for a visit and helped us a ton. However, even with 4 sets of hands, it took us 3 full days to paint everything.
I thought that painting over light pink and peach would be easy. For some reason the color really wanted to hang around. We were able to cover it up with only 2 coats, but not without difficulty, especially with the darker colors.
We tried to save some money with the roller covers we originally got and found that it was a mistake. They didn’t soak up the paint, were super bumpy, and wouldn’t paint the walls without skipping spots. We ended up getting a better quality roller cover and it worked SO much better. I am ALL about saving money, but this wasn’t one of the areas to save. The roller itself I bought the same brand because it wasn’t more expensive than the other ones and I guess some name brands do matter sometimessss.
Luckily, we saved a BUNCH at Sherwin Williams because our realtor had a code (something you may want to ask around about).
The first thing I thought before painting, was to sand the walls since they were slightly textured. I gathered opinions and came to the conclusion to leave them be for a few reasons you may want to consider.
If you are painting an old house, there is a good chance that there is lead based paint hanging around underneath. If that does not deter you, you will need a large professional sander, high quality respirators, and a lot of dedication, because it is going to take a long time (and a lot of money).
A lot of walls are textured and you may not even notice. I didn’t realize my walls in my apartment were textured until I came to this dilema. My apartment walls didn’t bother me at all, so I figured I was hyper-fixating on it.
Texured walls help cover up your (and previous) mistakes and you will probably have a lot more mistakes than you expect.
The pay-off to work/risk ratio is up to you. Once our house is decorated, I have a feeling I will completely forget about the walls so the work and risk was not worth it to me.
Needless to say, we skipped it and I am very glad we did.
We also painted the ceiling which required a 5-8 foot extentsion rod. We went with a big one because we have vaulted ceilings. It was actually super helpful throughout the whole house. Since I’m 23 going on 70, my back is awful and having the rod to dip in the paint pan without bending over was awesome.
Speaking of the paint pans, just buy a bunch. Trying to re-use them was very difficult. I thought “it’s the same color it doesn’t matter if I re-use it”. However, if you do this, you get little bits of dried paint mixed in with the new paint. Then, all the paint I had poured in the pan was practically useless because of all the little bits of dried paint that mixed in it.
Don’t make that mistake, especially if you don’t have discounted paint!
In the basement, we have wainscoting. I thought it was going to look bad even after we painted, but I was wrong! Painting it white gave the basement a real beachy, Cape Cod feel that I love.
It was pretty difficult to get all the corners right but my Mom was super good at getting the edges of everything in the house. She recommended a 1.5 inch brush, which I thought would be too small but it seemed to do the trick! She picked one up at the Ace Hardware down the street from us.
We got some pretty bold colors for the bedrooms and I am glad we did! I think a lot of people will be tempted to stay on the safe side, but I say just do it! I am obsessed with all of the bedroom walls.
What’s the worst case-scenario? You hate it? Paint over it! Life is too short to not take a chance, especially on something so harmless and easy to change. Create yourself a “little happy” in the paint color. Lots of things that bring me joy are very small and seem trivial. But happiness is not trivial. I guess I am just saying do what makes you happy even if it is as simple as a color.
The master bedroom in “Silverado Sage”
It will look even better with a bright white new door!
The office in “Rainy Day”
The guest room in “Blustery Sky”
The colors I used were Silverado Sage, Blustery Sky, and Rainy Day. These were from Market Collectin Color and Sherwin Williams. They can color match anything so don’t go looking for the creator if you have a better price.
Lastly, if you plan on re-doing your flooring, paint first. The entire house is our tarp and it is a great feeling! I will attach all of the things we used or similar ones you can buy on Amazon if you ever want or need them.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases/get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Extension Rod (it was much more expensive at our paint store)
Paint Pan (or get it from your paint store, it might be cheaper)
