Life moves on, and I've been busy painting. What a difference the right paint sheen can make! There are some basic factors to consider in selecting paint sheen, like durability, touch-up potential, desired gloss, etc. But I can't think of a good reason why the previous resident painted the wood board-and-batten laundry room ceiling in high gloss. It only serves to highlight the very imperfect and rough texture of the cheap plywood panels. And I'm sure he wasn't up there scrubbing them regularly, because they were filthy.
I had already painted the crown molding months ago, so it was finally time to give the ceiling a nice, clean coat. I really like Benjamin Moore's ultra flat ceiling paint; it's so thick it rarely drips and it's tintable to any of their thousands of wonderful colors. I had to do a lot of cutting in, due to the little batten strips. But now it looks like a velvety soft cloud overhead, instead of a prickly, stubbly, garish glare.
Before:
After:
What a difference! I think we, as beginner home-remodelers, could accidentally make that kind of a mistake (and many, many others). I'll have to remember this.
ReplyDeleteAlso, what a cute room!!
Thanks Anita. Yep, that sheen thing can get you every time! I may have to repaint the central hall, because even satin is showing all the imperfections in the plaster wall. On the flip side, a visitor pointed out that it highlights the hand-applied nature!
ReplyDeleteIt looks 100 times better. Personally I am a fan of as much gloss as one can get away with, but that's very rarely more than satin.
ReplyDeleteI, too, love a nice sheen. But with our old woodwork, satin is usually good with a durable eggshell on the walls. I would have to do a lot of patching and sanding to even think about semi-gloss trim (let alone gloss), and with almost guaranteed lead under there somewhere, it's just not worth it. But I always do ultra flat ceilings, and I'm leaning toward trying some of the velvety mattes on the walls next time.
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