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How We Cut In When Painting A Room

We finished painting the guest room. And boy is it bold. Seriously, it’s like no room we’ve ever painted before. And we luuurve it. With a capital urv. This is probably the most accurate pic (well I guess it’s as accurate as your monitor) of the dark teal that we went with:

bold-teal-walls-how-we-cut-in-video

The color was of course inspired by none other than Sue the Napkin. It’s kind of similar to Dragonfly (the color that we painted the backs of the built-ins in the future dining room) but when we held up a ton of swatches in the guest room we preferred this color (Dragonfly was darker and greener).

It’s called Plumage by Martha Stewart, but of course we got it color matched to Olympic Premium paint since it’s No-VOC (even the colorants they add are now VOC free). We went with an eggshell finish (so it’s a bit more wipeable and durable than flat but not too shiny since it’s such a deep tone, which can show lots of flaws and imperfections when it’s glossy). Lowe’s actually had a bit of trouble getting a good match, so if your paint pro can’t get it close enough – our lady finally got it within .03%  accuracy – Olympic’s Azalea Leaf is an extremely similar alternative. Of course you can also just go with Martha’s Plumage and not color match it to any other base to avoid matching worries completely.

But back to the whole room painting process. Let’s just say that as soon as we started rolling it on there were some oh em gee moments. And a fair amount of melodramatic nail biting.

Painting Nail Biter

But after we got to the second coat, the coverage was great and it was looking deep and rich and bold and fun. See how much more coverage coat two gave us below (the wall on the right has two coats while the wall on the left just has one). Pardon the semi-odd coloring in this shot and the one above, they were taken at night so the rest are more accurate thanks to daylight.

Painting In Progress

After we completed that second coat we were sold. Seriously. We got all hyper and slap happy. There’s just something about pairing in your face color with crisp white trim that makes you giddy. And amazingly enough, we got ‘er done with just one gallon of paint (with some to spare actually) since it only called for two coats – probably thanks to the tinted primer we used beforehand.

The first thing we did this morning was run into the guest room to admire it in the daylight. How can a $22 paint job make such a difference? It’s amazing. We were about to snap some after pics for you guys when the doorbell rang. It was our new guest bed arriving 30 minutes early. So it ended up in the pics since we didn’t have a moment to take any without it (more details on our mattress buying adventures later). Anyway, here’s the view of the room from the adjoined guest bathroom:

Painting Room From Bathroom

And here’s a shot of it from the hall:

Painting Room From Door

The off centered windows are definitely going to make the floor plan interesting, but we’ll share how we land on our final layout when we, uh, land on a final layout. We’re just going to play around with things until we figure out what we like best.

Oh and you’ll notice that we painted over some of the wall warts (as they so lovingly call them) like the vents and an old Bell Atlantic phone jack to the left of the white outlet plate above. They were already painted over by the previous owners so we repainted them to match the new wall color. We did keep all of the unpainted outlets unpainted though.

Speaking of painting over things, after a surprising number of requests I finally remembered to make a cutting in video, so you can enjoy the riveting play by play below and see how I use my favorite brush to get a nice clean line next to baseboards and trim:

As for down the road projects, we’d love to add crown molding and possibly paint the ceiling a lighter tone than the wall (or at least freshen it up with crisper white paint along with the trim). But that’s definitely not something we have time for with my mom & stepdad rolling into town this Thursday.

Painting Wall Meets Ceiling

So there you have our dark teal guest room. Now we just have to hang the headboard, dress the bed, get a shower curtain and bath mat, change out the toilet seat (it’s old and rusty), hang curtains (if we have time), and figure out the side table & lamp sitch (might not get to that either). Should be an interesting few days…

Comments

  2. manon says

    wow it looks amazing. I want to paint a room like this. I just need to get confident about it :)
    What kind of color is your floor in this room? I love it.

    Reply

  5. Tia says

    Several months ago you mention not usually taping when you paint and using a tapered paint brush instead. I have to say, that little piece of info changed my life! :) I bought a really nice tapered brush and I never tape anymore. It’s SO much easier and actually comes out better since the tape often bleeds. Thanks so much!

    Reply

    • ellis says

      Oh my goodness, agreed! My boyfriend thinks I’m crazy and frets that I don’t tape, but to me any mistakes that happen when you tape are such big BLOTCHES versus mistakes when you freehand with a good brush are more smooth little errors. Much more manageable.

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We’d love to repaint the trim with crisp white paint down the line (it’s already white, but could use a fresh coat when we have time- definitely not by this weekend though).

      xo,
      s

  7. Sandy says

    I have to say, “you guys are bold” for going with such a “bold” color. The first time and last time I did a color as bold as yours, used it as an accent color for fireplace wall, I didn’t sleep all night just thinking how bold that wall was. Simply don’t have it in me to have dark walls like that. Changed it the following day. Question though, coming from all neutrals in your other house, and so easy to decorate around neutrals, do you think this is a color you will stay with for a long time? It just doesn’t have that airy, crisp look to it anymore.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Once we bring in art, a headboard, curtains, bedding, and other textiles and focal points to break it up I think you’ll see what we do- that it’s actually sort of a neutral color once you load everything into the room. I know it’s not a light color, or a tan color- but it’s amazing how it goes with everything we hold up (a lime headboard, a chocolate blanket, a yellow rug, etc). I guess time will tell how the room evolves and how long the color stays, but we’re loving it!

      xo,
      s

  8. Leslie C. says

    LOVE LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOOOOVE!!!!
    I think you just discovered my Craft room color for me!!!
    This color makes me swoooon (Well, the color on my monitor hahah)! I will definitly be adding it to my color list to try out!
    Beautiful!

    Reply

  10. shannon says

    Love it! Glad to see you guys doing something bold. I have a similar color in my hallway (perhaps a bit more blue) and I’ve always loved it. Congrats on your new color addition! :)

    Reply

  12. Chelsea says

    I love it!! Bold is scary but wow, what a result! The white trim looks phenomenal. Can’t wait to see your choices for the finishing touches!

    Reply

  13. Maura B says

    This appears to be almost the exact same color that I painted our dining room last year and I have been loving it ever since! We have a warm-tone wood dining room set that really glows against this color. I also found the perfect imitation dupioni silk curtains at target to match! It really is a “cozy” color even though it’s blue/green!

    can’t wait to see the big reveal!

    Reply

  17. Cate says

    LOVE the color! I once had a similar colored bedroom a few apartments ago, I think it was Behr’s “Grand Rapids” (I know it was called G.Rap, just unclear about the paint brand) and it was my favorite room color ever! Very soothing and lovely to sleep in. :) Cute vid too, though I’m too nervous to try it, seems like you need a very steady hand, which I lack.

    Reply

    • ellis says

      This may just be my own not-a-professional experience, but our walls are caulked around all the trim and baseboards. I find it MUCH more difficult to paint the edges, since that molding was not done very evenly and I’m faced with whether to paint the molding (which can leave it bumpy) or to not paint it (which can leave it bumpy). Man. It drives me crazy.

  19. anne says

    i LOVE it! my husband and i have a gray house. we’ve painted every room in our house various shades of gray, and we love it, but we got very bold in our bedroom, and painted a deep indigo blue, and it is gorgeous! keep up the good work! love your blog, love your house. :)

    Reply

  21. Jaz says

    Gosh guys, I love the new colour! So bold, so perfect. It makes me very jealous that I live in rented accommodation. Can’t wait to see what you do next!

    Reply

  22. Dawn SC says

    Great color! I can’t wait to see how you lay out your room(s) with the off-center windows. None of the windows in any of our bedrooms are centered and it’s occasionally frustrating figuring out what to do.
    Thanks for the helpful video! Unfortunately, we have oddly textured walls (not popcorn, not orange peel… a contractor said it looked like the prev owners simply messed up and used too much water for finishing the walls or something! :-P) so cutting in is a huge pain – with tape, without, any brush, etc. It also sucks up a ridiculous amt of paint. Even small rooms typically use 1.5 gallons of paint consistently! It also makes fixing holes fun attempting to match the texture. :)

    Reply

  23. JMJE says

    OOh I like it and thanks for the video. I was totally guessing that you would paint this room a dark teal. I actually thought back to your inspiration napkin at some point this weekend. My bedroom is painted a dark blue and I love it. It makes it cozier/darker for sleeping.

    Reply

  24. Melissa says

    That color is awesome! It’s very similar to what we *intended* to paint our son’s nursery, but it turned out completely different. Oh well. I can’t wait to see what you do with those windows b/c our master is pretty similarly setup! Good luck :)

    Reply

  28. Kristin F says

    Looks incredible!! Bravo for tackling that job. I noticed the ceiling fan just a-buzzing away in the primer pics—-were you pushing the dry time to paint late into the night? :)

    I love dark walls with ultra white trim. Funny, when I was your age I did a lot of dark colors and white trim in our houses. Now that I’m older, I’m reverting back to neutrals. Except for my DR, planning on doing a deep, blue-gray in there. It never gets any light so why fight it?

    Reply

  29. Kristen says

    I LOVE the color! What a great job! I’m sure the grandparents are going to love this relaxing guest room – it’s seriously relaxing even with nothing in it yet!

    Reply

  32. Rachel says

    OK, I was leaning toward Plumage for my dining room and this seals it 100%! GORGEOUS! (Bonus, it was the color of my wedding shoes.)

    Reply

  33. Angie says

    I love the color! I can’t to see the new “Sue” unfold on the house. I just hope it doesn’t make me want to repaint all of mine!;) I noticed you are back to using a regular paint brush, did you stop using the special trim one?

    Reply

  34. Corinne says

    Just like everyone else, I love this color! You guys are more gutsy than me though – you painted the whole room that color! I’ve done one wall in my master bedroom a very similar color called Mirage Lake and have opted to do the other three walls in a grayish-blueish-white so that it doesn’t overwhelm the room. I never would have thought to use a primer underneath a dark color though. Was that recommended to you or did you plan on that already?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We’ve just always heard that tinted primer helps when going dark (cutting down on coats) and in this case it definitely seemed to! We were amazed that it only took two coats of paint (which is what we usually need for super light colors- and we thought dark ones would be a whole new ballgame).

      xo,
      s

  35. Shannon says

    This looks great! I can’t wait to see it completely finished! I love that you have a dark room! I was going to ask about the yellow bathroom but I scrolled up and saw someone beat me to it! I hope it works well together!

    Reply

  37. Cailin says

    Since the windows are oddly placed i think it would look nice to angle the bed into the corner. It might feel balanced in the middle of the windows.

    Reply

  39. Cate says

    This is completely unrelated, but for the past couple of weeks I’ve been seeing ceramic animal heads everywhere! I think it’s a sign. Not sure what it means, but definitely a sign.

    Reply

  40. Erika says

    Is that John painting? I almost didn’t recognize him without his red hat!

    I LUUUURVE the color! It is perfect. It is bold and fantastic! Looks amazing.

    Reply

  41. Ashley B. says

    First of all thank you for making my day! I got married 8 months ago and had a teal and red wedding. I have been dying for months to paint my office teal because I have a ton of stuff that was used for the wedding that could easily be used for my creative space. However, I have been so afraid to paint it teal, but thanks to you guys I will be heading to Lowe’s this afternoon! Thanks again!

    Reply

  42. Andee says

    Whoa! Now that’s a beautiful room! I’m ready to roll on my end, seriously. I’m gong to prime my office and oldest daughter’s room today. Paint colors forthcoming :-)

    Reply

  43. karen says

    Ahh I LOOOOOOOVEEEEE IT!!!! Don’t change the trim colour…love it with the teal/green….very historic.
    ooooo can’t wait to see the finishings!! I see some golds.
    Good choice Petersik’s!!

    Reply

  45. Bryn says

    Hey Guys – I love it!

    This may read as a shameless plug by linking to my blog, I promise it’s not. But I recently decided to paint our master bedroom dresser that same color! In fact our entire master is centered around this monochromatic color scheme. Check it out if you like: http://brynalexandra.blogspot.com/2011/02/master-diaries-chapter-4.html

    I’m excited to see how the room unfolds. I’m pretty sure this is my favorite color right now (hence why I picked it for our room).

    Reply

  46. Cindy says

    “Of course you can also just go with Martha’s Plumage and not color match it to any other base to avoid matching worries completely.”

    Hi guys- what does this mean? Do you mean get Martha Stewart paint if you want total accuracy?

    Congrats on going bold! It is scary to do, but you guys have such a great eye.
    Cindy

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes. If you want the closest result to what you see in our guest bedroom but your Lowe’s can’t seem to get a close computer match when they’re trying to match it to the Olympic Premium base (color matching results vary depending on each store’s machine and user error, etc) just go to Home Depot and buy a gallon of Martha Stewart Plumage for an identical look without the color matching headache. Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

  47. Kim says

    Love it! You guys said you were going to step out of your color comfort zone, and when you started painting in grey and fairly soft blue I doubted it, but this is definitely different. It’s a gorgeous color and it really makes the trim and floors stand out.

    Reply

  48. carolinaheartstrings says

    I love love love love it. I am a color freak and my house does not have one white wall. I had a similar color to this my hall bathroom at one time and strangely enought it did not make the room seem smaller. I love it. Looks great.

    Reply

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