Alex's Room: Paint!

Next up in Alex's big boy room makeover was paint. We finished the board and batten molding (I can hear Handy Hubby as he reads this... "We?"... yeah, yeah, yeah). Ok. Handy Hubby finished the molding and then it was time to paint.  From the get go, I wanted the top to be a dark gray with a slight blue tone. I'm going with classic blue and red but wanted something a little more sophisticated on the walls.  I literally walked into our local Sherwin Williams store, grabbed a couple of paint samples and chose one in about 10 minutes. This is a tactic I use often and it works out for me about 80% of the time. Since I knew we only need a gallon of paint this time, I wasn't worried about making a bad investment.  The final choice was Serious Gray by Sherwin Williams mixed in HGTV paint which has no VOCs (sold at Sherwin Williams stores).

After some calking thanks to 80 year old wanky walls, we dug in first with the lower half - Tocque White by Duron mixed in Sherwin Williams Harmony paint (barely grayish white which we have used on all of our trim throughout the house).  Once that was done, it cured while we went away for Christmas week, then we taped off the top rail and painted the top half Serious Gray. Here's the result...

Honestly, I adore the whole room and can't wait to show you the final!  Here's a close-up of the molding under the window casing. Handy Hubby just made a slightly rounded edge so that it blended a bit more with the casing.

We considered replacing the casing but did not want to open a huge can of worms. We also installed new cordless cellular shades from Lowes on the windows. Additional window covers to come (yet to be determined what form they'll take!) but these are a great base especially for kids because they are easy to operate and filter the light nicely.

In case you needed a reminder, here's where we started...

Kind of hard to believe it's the same room!