Well, I’m 90% done painting the living room and it looks amazing. It might be hard to justify painting white walls white, but the walls really weren’t in good shape and the previous “white” paint (renter’s white, which is really the color of mayonnaise mixed with nicotine stains) was a shiny semi-gloss that was painted on the walls, ceiling, and trim, washing out any sense of nice architectural details. If you don’t believe me, check the pictures:

Before

And after

Whoever said prep was the most important part of painting knew what they were talking about. I’m a pretty experienced painter, but I’ve never had to do quite so much work– ripping out all those cords left tons of holes to patch, and I did end up priming most of the walls so that I only had to paint two coats. But it’s done!

It might be hard to tell, but I painted the transom “windows” (which have been replaced with wood) the same as the wall color rather than the trim color, and it looks nice. The walls are Benjamin Moore “Moonlight White” in matte, the ceiling is BM “Simply White” in eggshell, and the trim is “Simply White” in semi-gloss. The semi-gloss trim next to the matte walls is beautiful. Evidence:

This picture makes the walls look more beige than they are, but there is a nice contrast in real life, too. I need to scrub the floors like crazy– I was pretty careful with drop cloths, but it looks like the last several painters weren’t. That should be fun.

And yes, the doors are off the frames. That’s the next project! And getting some furniture, that might be nice. And painting my room. And all the other things. My to-do list is roughly fifty items long, and counting.

I guess I should take the opportunity to clear some things up, like how this is all happening. Basically, Eva’s back home in Jersey for the summer and I’m staying up in New York. Because her family is full of lovely people and keeping a car in New York is an incredibly and uniquely hellish task, I’m keeping my old rustbucket Roxanne in her garage.

Ain't she a beaut'?

So this weekend, I took the train out to New Jersey and we drove back to Ikea in Brooklyn. We both love Ikea but mutually agree that we don’t really want an “Apartment in Minutes!” kind of place, but would rather have it come together with stuff we really like. Which doesn’t mean this will be the last piece of furniture we’ll get from there, but it is the first:

The KARLSTAD Sofa in Sivik Dark Grey. We opted to get a different style of legs than the standard birch rectangular ones and I think it makes the couch look so much nicer. Originally we wanted that really cool mid century sofa– you know, one from Mad Men with the buttons along the back and the tapered legs. Eventually, I did so much sofa research my head spun. And even though it’s more modern-modern than we originally intended to go, in the end this seemed by far like the best couch for the money– it’s very comfortable, it looks good, and at $350 you can’t really beat the price. It’s also slipcovered, so every last stitch of that upholstery can be dry cleaned and we could potentially swap out the upholstery someday if we’re bored of the charcoal (Ikea changes the available slipcover options but the couch will probably be in production approximately forever). Assembly was really really easy, we probably had the whole thing together in about half and hour.

We also got this STICKA blanket in natural, and I love it as well. The stitching is yellow, orange, blue, and brown.

And yes, those walls are painted! I’m nearly done in the living room. Ceiling painted, light fixture put back in place, walls spackled, sanded, primed, and painted. Now I just have to pick up the trim paint! Phew. These pictures are taken at night so it’s not a great representation of the color, but the walls are “Moonlight White” from Benjamin Moore. It’s an amazing white that I’ve used before– it’s a very bright white but also has very warm grey undertones. I know it’s hard to appreciate white walls repainted white (I’ll post better pictures when the trim is done!), but I can’t express how much better and brighter it looks. Really psyched for the painting to be over with!