Basement Remodel: Painting the Pig

Now that the electrical was in place, walls are up and the ceiling is painted, it's time to throw some paint on this bad boy.  My realtor always called this "putting lipstick on a pig" - and that's exactly what I was going to do.

Here is where we left off:

My dad was an engineer for 40 years, and therefore, a very methodical worker.  He has a plan laid out (which may get changed 4 or 5 times) before he begins any project.  While I do have some of my dad's genes, I mostly take my mom's approach which means just attacking something and figuring it out along the way.  One thing I did take from my dad is his philophy to work from the top down.  And the last minute design changes (like choosing to not wall in the yoga room while the contractor was here) is definitely the side of me that takes after my mom.

I'm very happy that I chose to paint the ceiling first.  This was a very messy job.  I used my Graco TrueCoat sprayer to paint the ceiling, and while it was much quicker than rolling or brushing, there was quite a bit of overspray since I am almost 2' shorter than the ceiling height (being only 5'2").  I had to point the spray gun almost directly upwards causing any overspray to fall directly on me (thankfully I had my mask and safety glasses on) and on the floor below.  Thankfully, I didn't have to worry about overspray on the floor or walls since they weren't yet finished.

Now that the basement ceiling was painted, I could attack the walls.  Two weeks ago my mom offered to come over after work and help me knock out some painting.  My dad had bocce, and Justin was working the game so we had until about 9 o'clock until she would be summoned home.  I jumped on the chance to get some help and when 5 o'clock hit, we ordered up some pizza and went to work.

Up until 5pm, I still hadn't chose a paint color and my mom had called to let me know she was on her way (she works 15 minutes from my house) - so I had to chose a color.  And fast.  Since my ultimate goal was to make the basement a cohesive part of the house, my plan was to stick to the same color scheme throughout.  First off, I use Benjamin Moore paints for all my wall colors and have become very familiar with the lines, so when I walked into the store I knew I was looking for a neutral, warmish-brownish-grayish color and knew I would either find it in the historic collection or the affinity collection.  It took a matter of 30 seconds to pick out Benjamin Moore Thunder (AF-685).

My normal process of choosing a paint color consists of spending an hour or so in the paint department grabing samples to test in the room, running back to the store to grab more samples and the whole paint-picking process would take weeks.  But today, I had 30 seconds.  I had 3 gallons of Benjamin Moore Paint & Primer in hand within 5 minutes and headed home, shocked that even I could make a decision that fast.

I planned on using the spray gun again to paint the walls.  Which meant that 1) I would use more paint to cover the walls than should I just roll it on and 2) I had to prep the basement for overspray since the ceiling was already done.  I covered the windows with resin paper and painters tape, and created a 12" barrier on the ceiling where the walls met the rafters.  There wouldn't be much overspray because I was painting the walls and any excess paint would fall to the floor - the old carpet was still in place so I was able to keep the floors exposed and let them catch the overspray.  I removed all base molding (since they would have to be removed to install new flooring anyway) - and kept the door trim and built in exposed.

A sprayer works quickly, and in less than 20 minutes all walls had one coat of paint on them.  My mom brushed primer on the built-in, the doors and the casings while I sprayed a second coat on the walls.  In 4 hours we had the walls painted and all the trim primed.  The following night I sprayed a final coat on the molding, built-in and doors with an Ultra-White Semi Gloss.

Shortly after letting the paint dry I was ready to remove the paint-covered carpet.  One Friday night, while Justin was working (which he does a lot of this time of year), I took a box cutter to the floor and started tearing it out.  It was much more difficult (and labor intensive) than I expected.  Apparently, glue sticks incredibly well to concrete.  My 29-year-old back was feeling it the next day.

After 2 gallons of Benjamin Moore Paint & Primer, and a whole lot of sweating from ripping out the carpet, here is how the basement was looking:

And from the opposite view you get a little glimpse of what the built-in looks like: 

Below is a close-up of the built-in and how awful it was before.  Please excuse the grafitti art.  I originally planned on removing this so it was used as a dumping ground to unclog the paint sprayer.  I chose to instead work with what I have and alter it a bit... which saved me at least $400. 

 

Here is the built-in after a little paint job.  I have future plans to add some shelving to make this a mini-bar.

Below is what will be the yoga room. This little nook is surrounded by one wall of drywall and two walls of cheapo paneling.  The paneling has seen better days.  I thought a little bit of paint would make it look better, but overall, it looks worse.  The paneling is still falling off theh wall and still has a big hole in it.  We decided to spend the extra money to have it refaced with drywall.  Below is the yoga room with the painted paneling (and an underlayment ready for a new floor).

Here's a little reminder with what I started with: 

 

 

The old color in the basement was also a gray color but had a cooler undertone.  The wall color looks more gray in the daylight and the brown tones come out with the recessed lighting.

I think the built-in saw the most dramatic change.  I'm glad I didn't rip this out.  Just a little bit of paint and some hardware already has it looking way better.

And for my favorite part of any project...crossing one more thing off the to-do list:

- Fix all electrical violations

- Remove dropped ceiling

- Toss fluorescent lighting

- Clean up ceiling joists (so it is free from unnecessary wires, nails, hooks, spider webs, etc)

- Map out new floor plan

- Install new lighting (needs to be flush with bottom of floor joist to give me max ceiling height)

- Paint ceiling (floor joists)

- Put up new framing

- Hang dry wall

- Select color and paint walls

- Install access doors to water heater/furnace and both sump pumps

- Install floating floor in yoga room

- Select and install carpet in play room

- Paint and install base trim

- Paint asbestos tiles (yes, PAINT!) in new laundry room

- Expand Update existing water closet to include sink make it pretty

- Create workshop with pegboard

- Expand Organize storage area

Isn't it amazing what a little bit of paint can do? Paint makes for the cheapest update in any project.  It amazes me that people are scared away from a great house by some different paint choices, wallpaper and oak fixtures.  What projects have you transformed with paint? 

Mary