As planned, our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore collected our donation items yesterday. Between that and moving a bunch of frames and accessories into the future playroom (for now), the guest bedroom stopped being a cluttered mess and went from this:
To this:
It’s not entirely ready for the in-laws, who arrive on Thursday—yikes—but at least it’s no longer a junkyard.
We snapped that “after” photo at night because once Clara went to bed we decided to earn some brownie points and paint the room. Yes, we’re total suck-ups who love extra credit. Since the new bed won’t arrive until early next week, it made sense to paint while the room was empty. With Clara asleep we figured we’d seize the night.
By morning the room looked more like this:
The color reads as a stony pale blue with hints of purple in certain lights. It looked neutral enough not to offend guests, and if we ever have a baby boy someday the walls would already be suitable. Pretty, right?
Okay—totally joking. That’s not the final paint; it’s tinted primer. Did we catch you? We couldn’t resist a little momentary fake-out.
Tinted primer can look surprisingly dark, and we’ve been itching to try a dramatic, deep color somewhere in the house. This seemed like a good room to go bold—after all, a dark, enveloping space can be very cozy for sleeping. The room actually gets a fair amount of natural light thanks to two walls with windows and another window in the adjoining bathroom, so we felt comfortable being adventurous.
The shade we chose is very dark and definitely outside our usual comfort zone, but for some reason we’re oddly excited about it. It feels a little thrilling. We’ll keep the exact color a secret for now and share photos once the final coats are on this weekend—color descriptions are tricky, and it’s easier to show than to tell.
This was our first time using tinted primer. Because we planned to go very deep with the final color, a tinted primer made sense to help with coverage and color richness. We used Olympic Premium Primer—100% VOC-free and reasonably priced—because it’s water-based, not oily or especially smelly. It went on smoothly, though it was a bit thin, so we had to watch for drips and wipe them up as they happened. That may be typical of water-based primers compared with the heavier oil-based formulas we used years ago. Fingers crossed it does its job so we don’t end up needing a dozen coats of paint to achieve the deep, saturated finish we want. We only bought one gallon of the final paint, so here’s hoping it’s enough.