Tim Samoff // Weblog (old)

August 02, 2003

Bathroom painting: Postmortem

Five days of painting fun. My muscles hurt, I’ve got a few cuts and bruises, my paint thinner rash has healed, but is still in my memory, paint is stuck to places on my body that I will probably never find… All-in-all, it was a fairly enjoyable week, though. I did figure a few things out in the process, but some of them just couldn’t be avoided in the tiny living space that we’re in (i.e., having a clean workspace to prep and clean stuff that was out of the way of the actual work I was doing).

My first regret is forgetting to take a picture of the bathroom in its original state. Luckily, after having thrown all of the old wallpaper away, I found this piece stuck to the bottom of a paint bucket. The scan doesn’t quite do the “foilness” of the paper justice, as it was a bright and shiny chrome that surrounded the tannish and white floral designs. Whoever put the wallpaper up in the first place intended it to stay up too; it was applied to the walls before anything else in the bathroom was installed (toilet, tile, cabinets, mirror, etc. — if anyone ever removes the toilet and mirror, they will find all sorts of this beautiful wallpaper still there).

As mentioned above, it is nice to have a workspace that is dedicated to keeping and cleaning tools and materials and is out of the way of the work that is being done. The problem here is that Julianna and I live in a studio apartment. Now, it is fairly sizeable for a studio, but there still isn’t very much room for extras, like paint buckets, tarps, and toolboxes. When I’m not using my tools, I keep them in the same closet as our furnace, so to bring them out for use makes navigating our apartment rather tricky. Also, I had to use our kitchen sink for cleaning brushes and rollers and the like. That wasn’t fun at all, especially with the oil-based primer I was using.

Oil-based primer. Good in theory, bad in practice. If you can, try to find a primer that is acrylic- or pastel-based. If you can’t, buy lots of paint thinner and be prepared to get messy.

When priming stained wood, as I mentioned on Day 4, allot enough time for two or three coats before you actually paint it with the final color. This may seem like overkill, but it will save you some grief (not to mention your expensive paint).

Don’t use sheets as drop cloths, as I also explained on Day 4. Paint will soak through them. Use tarps or something else that’s water-resistant. Carpet is precious and hard to clean paint out of.

I really do think that I could have finished this bathroom in the three days that I had originally scheduled for myself. It would have been difficult, but if I worked until midnight or so everyday, it could have been possible. Still, don’t underestimate the time that a job like this will take you. Sure, a bathroom is a small room, but with old wallpaper, old wallpaper glue, and a bunch of stained wood pieces, time kind of gets lost with the doldrums. Give yourself enough time and don’t get frustrated when you don’t finish as much as you think you should have (I admit that this is one of my biggest downfalls and that I beat myself up when things don’t go my way — sorry, Julianna!).

Overall, though, the week progressed with little trouble. The new colors make our bathroom bright and lively (thanks, Stacie!) and much more “liveable.” Along with the paint, we have changed all of the hardware to a matching chrome/silver (before, there was a mix of silver and gold). We also got a new, white toilet seat to match the white trim and doors. After touching up today and getting the new closet door handles (on the 8th — they’re on order), the bathroom will be complete. After touch-ups today, all we have to do is clean up the rest of the mess and find some place to put the leftover paint and painting tools.

A couple of final thoughts…

Buy a one-inch, flat paint brush. It is the best purchase that I made this week and I wish that I had bought it on the first day. It makes touch-ups quick, it makes trim work easier than a cutter brush does, and it fits in your hand kind of like a large pencil; very nice.

Also, if you need new door hinges, don’t buy door hinges — buy utility hinges and paint them. Door hinges can cost from $6.00 to $12.00 a piece! When you need six of them, like I did, it can get rather pricey. Utility hinges run for around $2.00 to $3.00, and while you may have to square-off the insets on your doors and door frames so the hinges fit, the price-saving makes it worth it. I got some stainless steel hinges that look just like any custom “pewter”-looking hinges you might get at Restoration Harware.

I think I’ll create a new show for TLC called, “Changing Spaces” (one room, five days, $200.00, you’re all alone).

Posted at 08:24 am

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