We're Painting Again!: Part 1

When we were first buying houses, one of our "must-haves" was no wood paneling. Unfortunately, this requirement wasn't met when we bought our house. Actually, a lot of requirements weren't met when we bought our house. So when we moved into our house, we hired someone and had the wood paneling painted.

There were two built-in shelves in our house we did not have painted in order to save money. One was in our breakfast nook and one was in what is now my piano studio. It worked for the time being because only the shelf was left natural wood so it was acceptable. But I would often teeter totter between thinking it was fine the way it was and wanting it to be painted to match the rest of the room.

With the Covid situation improving, I am currently getting ready to reopen my studio and have students return in person for lessons if they choose to. I was also in one of my moods where I wasn't quite happy anymore with the way the shelf looked.

Natural '80s wood glory. Finding a place to
temporarily put all of my piano music was a challenge.

Painters charge more to paint wood paneling because it's been stained and sealed. In order to get paint to properly adhere, there's a couple options:

1. you sand down the wood to remove the finish

2. you use really nice primer and paint (typically oil-based)

3. you clean the entire surface with a strong cleaner (TSP, krud kutter, etc.)

4. some combination of the above options

We never officially got a quote to paint this shelf, but my guess is someone would have charged between the $600-$1,000 range to prime and paint this shelf inside and out. My guess is it would have cost us more than average because a painter would likely choose to spray normally. However, because my piano is in this room, I would never let anyone spray paint. Even if they said they'd cover everything, I would not trust it enough to do it. And then they'd charge you more to paint it by hand because it's more work. So we chose to do it ourselves. 

It seems like we started this project on a whim, which we kind of did, but there's actually been years of experience and thought put into it.

- we painted our own kitchen cabinets and 6 years later, they've held up really well considering it's a very high-trafficked area of our house

- we found a better type of paint and primer since then that holds up better than the one we used in our kitchen

- we have leftover painting supplies

- now is the time to do it if we don't want my studio to look like a construction zone when my students are back

Prep is key.

It actually didn't look terrible after I wiped the entire thing down with
TSP and 20 paper towels. But I'm still painting it.
Also since we have plenty of masks lying around, it was great not to inhale the spray. 

First coat of primer.

I was laughing at myself because less than a month ago, I'd told myself I was done with home improvement projects for a while. Our various handyman experiences from last month left me exhausted. And here we are again...I told a friend we were starting this project and her response was, "You're just bored at home, aren't you?" 😅

Clearly, this past year has had such an effect on me.

So this is how we started another house project and plan to finish hopefully within the next 3 weeks before my students come back. So far of the friends I've talked to, one is sad the wood is going and three are excited. Which side do you fall on? 

Stay tuned for the budget breakdown and final look!

Read Part 2 here.