Paint A Room, step by step

The office ceiling and walls are officially painted, which is good news because we are at T-minus 48 hours until this baby’s scheduled delivery. Note: the trim is pure white in here (the same color as the desk in the middle of the room). No idea why it is looking a little cream – perhaps simply the time of day/lighting?

It is still looking truly stark in here (holy cow, who watched Game Of Thrones last night?), so we cannot wait to add:

• a rug
• window treatments
• a lively pendant or two over the desk area
• art
• more storage along the left wall (and a craft table/photography zone)
• an updated kid-desk area on the right
• etc, etc, etc

But even though we are only around 10% done, it has come a long way since its former days of blue-trim.

And there is nothing like some final-hour pre-baby hustling to get your blood pumping.

In the past we shared this video where I demonstrated a few cutting in pointers that work for me…

… and there were a bunch of requests on this post for video footage of John rolling a ceiling and a wall, so our office-painting update was the ideal opportunity to catch him in action. This is by no means the professional way to paint a room, it is simply what works for us. So without further ado – here is how John rolls:

*We mentioned a few brands by name, but none of them were paid/perked, they are simply what we like (we curated color collections with Benjamin Moore in 2012 & 2013, but did not have time to do one this year – and never used them exclusively, were paid to mention them, or accepted free paint while we did).

For those who cannot watch the video, here are a few highlights:

• John likes to use a rod extender to take the strain off his back while painting ceilings
• we do not have textured ceilings so we use a roller that is meant for “smooth surfaces” – typically by Purdy, Wooster, or Ben Moore (we are not brand loyal, and typically simply grab whatever’s on sale)
• if this room were carpeted we certainly would have covered the floor, and if you have issues with splattering or simply prefer to keep yours under wraps it never hurts to use drop cloths (pros would for sure)
• watch the speed, amount of paint, and pressure you put on the roller – upping all of those things can be tempting to get things done faster, but keeping them all in check can contribute to more even coverage and fewer drips/splatters
• higher quality paint is typically thicker, so it tends to drips less (we do not use ceiling paint on ceilings, we simply use good quality flat paint)
• we skip the rod extender when rolling the walls, but otherwise it is the same technique
• our preferred order is for me to cut in so John can roll right behind me, then I will do my second round of cutting-in and John will once again follow right behind with the roller (that way the roller can get as close to the moldings and eliminate any brushstrokes that I might leave while cutting in)

We have shared a few time lapse room-painting videos in the past, so we thought those might be helpful to include here too. Here is one of us painting our old master bedroom in 2012. You will notice we used fairly much the same approach back then (I was less steady with cutting in along the ceiling, so sometimes we used tape up there).

And here is another time lapse video of us priming the kitchen (along with the overhead beams) from 2011.

Now that we got the “how” out of the way – let us switch gears to the “whys” of choosing our office wall color…

• We hoped something light and refreshing (we are both drawn to airy and bright offices)
• The dining room on the other side of the foyer is going to be dark and moody, so we did not want another bold or dark room across from it
• I was campaigning hard for a soft honeydew green, but John worried it could hinder the function of the room (we plan to photograph smaller projects in here on a craft table, and he thought too much green would reflect in our shots)
• We had trouble agreeing on colors in here, so we grabbed four test pots (in Daiquiri Ice, Lime Froth, Palest Pistachio, and Tint of Mint)

Oh and one more pointer is that when we applied those test paint pots (could not get an accurate picture of them, but simply picture four blobs on the wall in a few distinct places around the room) we painted them from top to bottom in alphabetical order, which helped us remember which swatch was which, so we did not mix them up. After a few days of debate we at last agreed on Palest Pistachio. It felt airy and light, was not too green, and it did not hurt that it was named one of ten “Happiness Inducing Colors” by Remodelista. So here is the room all done, in Palest Pistachio. It is photographing a little bluer than it looks in real life – but it is certainly a glad color that feels bright without being bold or neon.

Do not mind me, this is simply my go-to picture ever.

We have big plans to make a larger bulletin board above this kid-desk area, most likely from window to window, so that should be lively (the screens are open so the windows look crazy here – simply pretend you do not notice).

Feels good to have one more to-do list item checked off. You know, until a newborn comes along and the whole house goes to heck again…

Our Go-to Paint Colors

If you are having trouble picking the right color to paint your room, check out these detailed deep-dive posts about our go-to paints:

• The 12 Best White Paint Colors
• Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray
• Benjamin Moore Simply White
• Sherwin-Williams Pure White
• Sherwin-Williams Extra White

Psst- Wanna know where we got something in our house? Simply click on this button: