I was looking to get more light in my life when I hired a professional house painter to paint the interior of our home. In the interest of full disclosure, I wanted to paint the whole interior of our house, but after the painter said we’d have to move out for five days, maybe a week, I changed the plan. So we broke the job into two jobs; he’ll paint the rest of the rooms another time. He’s already scheduled to come back this spring to power wash and paint the exterior. I like having an on-going relationship with a professional painter. I think it’s one of the key elements of responsible homeownership. (Since we live in Oregon we unfortunately couldn’t hire the pros, and my friends, at HomeSquare.)
Even though we didn’t have to move out, preparing for the paint job was a job. Our painter gave us a week in advance notice to take down and remove everything that was on the walls; he also said we had to clear every mantel and every surface of objects. It turns out we have a lot of objects. As one of the rooms being painted was the kitchen, he warned I would have no practical use of that room for several days. Every smaller piece of furniture and decor including books, pillows, candles, small rugs, artwork had to be relocated to other places inside the house, even the bathtub.
Artwork and pillows piled up in the bathroom.
It took us about three days to get everything done. One night, in bed, I counted sixteen different pieces of artwork stacked against the walls in our bedroom. I joked to my spouse it was good practice for living in an Airstream or tiny home.
An important thing nobody talks about is how well you can live with your painter. Because you are living together if you work from home. It can become rather intimate. Our painter said he would arrive and start promptly every day at 8 a.m. and he was true to his word which meant that on at least one day I greeted him in my bathrobe. It turned out we got along very well and it really helped that we got our dogs out of the way by sending them over to the neighbor’s. My advice is if you’re going to paint and you’ve got pets, make every effort to get them out of the house even if it means shelling out for doggy day care.
Lucy and Trixie were safer hanging out at our neighbors, and out of the way from the painting.
All my friends were interested in what color I was going to paint. After two decades of embracing darker hues, I went with white, well, two whites, both by Sherwin Williams. All the walls are a slightly blue/gray white called Rhinestone; all the woodwork and trim is a custom white our house painter has made for himself at our local Sherwin Williams distributor. I would describe it as a rich, creamy white, the color of soft serve vanilla ice cream. It is his personal paint recipe and he uses it on all his jobs, which is one of the reasons he is a custom painter. His helper advised me he usually adds something of his own to every paint, so the Rhinestone on the walls may not be precisely Rhinestone. Whatever it is, I’m in love with it.
Freshly painted living room in Rhinestone, from Sherwin Williams.
White by the way, is enjoying a wave of popularity. And why not? It’s brilliant. It’s fresh. It brightens up every space. White rooms flowing into other white rooms and hallways makes every space seem so much more expansive. “It really opens up these rooms,” my painter said when the job was finished. Which is precisely what I was looking for as the primary goal of my paint job. To make my small house seem bigger. On the other hand, if you’re still interested in adding a pop of color to your home, check out these design tips.
After only three and a quarter days, our paint job was completed. This is where a true professional comes in. His first task was to cover every inch of flooring with brown paper; he moved the heavier furniture; prepped the walls; sanded what needed to be sanded. He took down all the blinds and painted their cornices; he applied a base coat to cover the dark yellow-orange and deep cement colored walls; he spackled and sanded all the rough spots on the walls. When the prep work was completed, he skillfully applied two coats of fresh paint to the walls and the woodwork.
Before (left) and after right) of the kitchen.
He custom painted the one frivolously colored spot in my house which is a window seat in the kitchen. At my request, he painted it a cheerful mashup of cherry red, deep marine blue, and lavender.
Trixie enjoying the view from the newly painted window seat.
The walls are so beautiful now, we haven’t rehung any artwork. And we might not. We’ve fallen in love all over again with our house and can’t stop admiring our beautiful paint job which is a work of art in and of itself. Contact your HomeSquare professionals about scheduling your paint job. It pays to hire a professional to get the best results.
-Eve Marx
Eve Marx is a national journalist and book author. Follow her reflections on home design and interior style on Instagram at the hashtag #funkybeachhouseseasideror.