Check Another One Off That To Do List

Last weekend I enlisted the help of my best friend for dining room painting.  (She owed me from back about 5 years ago when she was 9 months pregnant with her first baby, ready to pop, decided to move and wanted the new place painted.  She watched while her mom, mother in law and I painted!)

We cleared the room before I thought to take before pictures so you don't get to see the most drastic difference of when I took down the hideous 1970's esque blackout curtains....oh man they were so pretty.  But here's some boring blonde colored paneling as far as the eye can see.  I hate that our down stairs is 99% paneling, and drop ceilings in every room..BLAH.  But as wonderful as it would be to enjoy the 8 foot ceilings that are awaiting up there, we don't have the money or the desire to demo everything that is in horrid condition (and wallpapered..yes the ceilings) and start fresh right now so a can of paint to change things up it is!

paneling, and more paneling, and ugly cheap ass door.

After we cleared everything we could out of the room and shoved the rest toward the middle we took the palm sander, and some sanding pads to the wall to remove the seriously glossy finish on the paneling so that the paint had a slightly better chance of sticking well.  (I didn't do this in the living room when I repainted and it scratches oh-so-easily!)  After the sanding we wiped down the walls and busted out the paint.  What color did I go with?

Dark Toast!

I used Behr Premium Plus Ultra (which I use anytime I want to skip the primer step!)  I had it color matched to this sample that I picked up at Lowe's by Valspar.  We really only had to do one coat of the brown then I went  back over it a day later and hit the spots that the roller put on to thick or we had left a brush mark, I fricken' Love this paint!  We painted the trim and that hideous door a semi-gloss white, oh what a difference some paint can make!

I want to get a different hutch (or paint this one a bold color like Teal)  And that would be a fraction of our limited edition bottle collection...Mostly the Mountain Dew's  in there.  

thinking about painting my shelves white, or black I can't decide if white is too much white or if I really like the black with the brown...opinions?

(the door got 2 additional coats of white paint before I stopped seeing bleed through.  Also eventually I will make a new curtain for that door, the old one has got to go!)

I am so happy with how well it turned out.  Amazing how a can of paint can make it feel like a whole new house!  Now to finish this photo frame project so I can picturize my empty wall that I didn't get a picture of its nakedness.