The Amazing Changes Paint Brings

For the past week or so, I have been working to finish up the living room.  Most of the trim throughout the house is either dinged up, repainted with different shades,  or just caked with years of dust.  In a moment of insanity, I decided to take on the project of repainting all the trim throughout the house.  I'm going room by room, starting with the living room, then the dining room, then the foyer area (I'm going in order of rooms used).  

It's a lengthy process involving chipping away some bubbled & old paint, sanding areas down, patching up gouges, taping off walls, painting the trim, and also scraping off old paint off of window and door panes.  It's also a pretty boring process, so I try to work on the trim a little bit, and then go try to organize other areas of the house (and maybe catch up on some old shows and check out new ones).  During the process, I absolutely hate painting and thought repainting the trim is ridiculous; however, once I took all the tape off in the living room, I fell in love with the new trim.  It makes the room look so much brighter and cleaner.  

Here are some pictures of the trim transformation from in the living room:

Before the Trim was Repainted:

Previous paint jobs were present on the trim.  Here you can see a little bit of  red on the trim (the dark spots on the white).  There was also some navy and light blue paint in other areas.  

Here you can see a patch of paint completely missing.  Some of the old paint flaked right off while I was cleaning up the trim in preparation to be painted.  I had to then sand these areas so the new paint would go on smoothly.

Here's another shot of paint on the upper trim.  You can see some red and navy on the white edge.

One corner of the living room has some issues.  It appears that there has been some water damage on this corner.  We know that the outside downspouts and drainage system are bad.  Steve has been working on that issue and it should be corrected by Spring.  We haven't noticed any water inside, just damage to the wall and a separation between the wall and trim.  (You can see where the plaster has bubbled on the wall in the corner).

Here is a close-up of the separation in the wall & trim.  This area's location is in the corner of the living room (you can see it in the previous picture).  I used a silicon sealant (what was left over from the bathroom project).  This may not be a long term solution, but the gap is no longer noticeable for now.  

After the Trim has been Repainted:

Here's the corner with the damage.  There is no longer a gap between the wall and trim.  

Here you can see the area that had the missing paint.  It's all patched up and one color again!

Here you can see all the trim pieces are the same color and no longer have previous paint colors on them.

Clean paint edges!

The living room is almost completely done.  All we have left to do is mount the tv over the fireplace and move the furniture around until we find the right set-up.  On a whim, I decided to paint the background of the built-in shelf unit the same green color from the dining room.  It goes nicely with the green curtains and pillows in the living room.  

Also, notice the lovely roses on the coffee table.  Steve brought them home for me one day, just because.  I don't brag on him much, but couldn't resist this once :).