“Oh what a feeeeeeling, painting on the ceeeeeiling.” Yes, that was a Lionel Richie reference. You’re welcome.
It was time to finally paint the sunroom — hence the furniture stacked in the center of the room.
Before we started, we revisited the half-brick wall discussion from the last sunroom post. Readers suggested options like adding brick veneer or reclaimed wood over the drywall portion. The problem: the drywall sits in front of the brick, creating an awkward lip if we added anything that projected outward. That led us to consider either distressing/fading the brick or painting it to match the painted brick in the living room, which already has paint splatters from the previous owners.
The painted brick in the living room sits in the same sight line as the sunroom, so painting the small u-shaped brick area in the sunroom felt like the most cohesive option. But we didn’t want to rush that decision — so we started by painting the rest of the walls first to see how that affected the brick’s look.
We cleared nearly everything out, which turned the living room into a temporary disaster zone. For anyone who loves DIY chaos, here’s a candid shot — painting one room tends to spill into the rest of the house.
Burger didn’t mind the extra pillows. This is his “excuse me dude with the camera, someone’s trying to nap here” face.
Clara was on a playdate with my parents, so we could work without worrying about paint hazards or her navigating the pile o’ chaos in the living room.
Painting is usually second nature for us, except this room has 12-foot ceilings — a new challenge. We couldn’t live with mismatched white ceilings and yellowed-cream walls any longer (they were two different colors), so we got started.
How did we handle the tall ceiling? Ladder and elbow grease.
We chose Rockport Gray by Benjamin Moore — our current favorite. It’s a warm, brownish-gray rather than a cool cement tone (we use it in our bedroom too). More on why we picked it after the reveal. For now, you’ll have to tolerate corner shots while we do the edging.
Edging took a while — this room is basically all corners and windows. Sherry handled most of the trim work around doors and windows, while I took the few high windows up near the ceiling from the ladder.
After edging, Sherry applied a second coat around the doors and windows while I tackled the main surfaces with an extension roller. It was my first time using a roller on a pole for a high ceiling — surprisingly manageable, though tiring on the arms and neck.
The roller pole couldn’t get the precise area where the ceiling fan mounts, and the ladder didn’t reach high enough for detailed edging there. So we improvised: a paintbrush taped to a pole. Professional, right?
The brush-on-a-pole worked like a charm. It gave us the surgical precision needed around the fan plate where a roller wouldn’t suffice.
The job took about two coats and roughly seven hours across two days. Not our fastest, but we’re very happy with the result.
Despite the warm gray, the room reads bright — light floods in, which made us confident about choosing a darker tone. The tile floor looks less yellow now that the walls aren’t a matching creamy-bisque, and the space feels more connected to the rest of the house.
The two blue stools in the corner are part of a layout experiment — we’re toying with the idea of a small café table there. Nothing is set in stone yet.
Why Rockport Gray?
- It makes the white trim pop, giving the room a crisper look than the yellowed cream did.
- The darker, moodier tone downplays the room’s odd sloped ceiling and blends the angles more cohesively.
- The tile floor no longer reads as monochromatic and overly yellow against the new wall color.
- It coordinates with the living room’s Moonshine walls and the kitchen’s grellow walls, both visible from the sunroom.
- In greener months, the moody hue won’t compete with the view outside, allowing the outdoor foliage to take center stage.
- The brownish-gray also helps camouflage the similarly colored heating/cooling unit.
The new wall color also picks up tones in the mortar, which is helpful if we leave the brick untouched.
After painting, we’re still not sold on leaving the brick as-is. The top of the drywall above the brick sits awkwardly against the window, and with painted brick already in the living room, the unpainted brick in the sunroom feels disjointed. A painted brick wall might offer the seamless look we want.
We considered a gray-wash (using watered-down paint, stain, or even cement rubbing) to tone down the red, and tested a mockup, but it still didn’t feel as seamless as a full paint job like the living room’s brick.
So painting the brick remains a likely next step.
We’re also giving more thought to adding a window seat under the big window — that should be a fun project if we decide to move forward. As always, we’ll share the details as we make progress.
Even with more work ahead, painting this room reaffirmed how transformative paint can be. The sunroom no longer feels like a forgotten corner; it’s starting to feel like a place to relax on a lazy Sunday, which is exactly how we used one in our first house — and that prospect has us excited. What projects did you tackle this weekend? Any painting or pole-based adventures?