Living Room Ceiling and Paint

Living Room Paint and Ceiling

As part of our plan for remodeling the kitchen our contractor scraped the "popcorn" off of the ceiling. Since that ceiling is connected to the ceiling in the living room and hallway we needed to make a decision. Do we only scrape the kitchen or continue the remodel through the living room? We decided that we should go ahead and scrape the "popcorn" off the living room ceiling as well. We were told that in order to properly do the ceiling we would need to empty the living room. Since we had planned a week long vacation out of town we made it our mission to be down to just the piano before we left.

We keep a lot of stuff in our living room, so it was quite a feat getting everything boxed up and stored in the garage. Not everything would fit in the garage so we had to put a few items in the kitchen while we were gone.

If you look closely at the ceiling wall boundary you will see a border wall paper, here's a closeup.

 

It was great while it lasted, but it was time for the wallpaper border to go.

We weren't really sure what color(s) we wanted to paint the living room, so we went to Lowes', again, to pick out paint. In addition to color paint "chips" they also have suggested combinations. We saw one for a "apple-red" for the walls and "percale" for the trim. We bought a sample of the apple-red and when we brought it home we were worried that it would be too dark. Sandi suggested that instead of painting directly on the wall, I should put up some butcher paper and paint on the paper. I put down two coats of the red and we were worried, it was too red, too much for our sensitive palettes. Sandi was sorting some papers getting ready to pack and found a blue color chip and remembered that we had originally discussed using that color for the living room. So early the next morning I ran over to Home Depot and got a sample of that paint.

We decided that the blue would be better for us, keeping the "percale" which is a slightly off-white color for the trim. It may be hard to tell, but the color chip is hanging on top of the paint on the upper edge of the blue. I guess the sample matched the paint chip pretty well.

In addition to scraping the ceiling and putting down a new texture on the ceiling, a number of recessed lights were added. When we had the lights installed in the kitchen I really liked them, but had one concern about them in the living room, glare. Since you can see the bulbs essentially sticking out of the ceiling you look directly at the bulb. I made it clear to the contractor that we really didn't want that in the living room. Fortunately they make a different trim, more expensive of course, that allows the light to be slightly recessed in to the ceiling, so it's more of a down light and much less going out the sides. I am really glad I said something, because it really works great. We ended up with six recessed lights in the living room, the same number as the kitchen, but on two circuits. Four of them are on a dimmer and light the "main area" of the room. The other two lights define a hallway that leads from the front door to the kitchen. I took the opportunity to add a 2nd light switch for these lights so they can be turned off from either end of the "hall." The contractor did a great job selecting the proper location in the ceiling so that they are shining down on what you're reading or working on, but not so far out as to cast shadows. They also don't light up the TV screen and cause eye strain when watching TV or movies.

When we were leaving our vacation, I wrote our contractor that we would be home that night and were looking forward to moving everything back in the next day. Not so fast, it had taken him longer than he thought to finish the paint job, and when we returned home, this is what we saw.

We loved the color, but there was much work to be done. Fortunately my work schedule is flexible enough that I could go in that day instead of wasting a day of vacation "watching paint dry." Another day and the contractor was finished.

We spent Saturday cleaning couches and rugs that we had taken out of the room a week prior. We moved enough furniture in to have a few places to sit.

As part of the set with the China cabinet we bought for the kitchen, we also have a tall curio cabinet that we are going to have to display nice items in the living room. We already had a packed living room and resorted to using a 3D modeling system in order to best lay out the room before we started moving furniture around. The one thing we were pretty sure of was where the TV had to go in any configuration so we put it back on the wall. Here's a screen shot of our latest thinking.

 

It may be too small to see, but we have the same couches, but have brought a book case in from another room, as well as having the curio out and visible along the dominant corner of the room. We'll be doing a little more modeling before we finalize the room. I really don't want to damage the floor, or my back, moving heavy furniture too much.

I have to say, I am really glad we decided to go ahead and have the living room worked on, it's really nice and if we can keep it uncluttered, it will be a good place to visit with family and friends.