The Ugly Room: Making Progress

I bought and moved into my house just over a year ago.  It was a disaster when I bought it.Every room had cracked plaster walls that needed to be mended.  Every room needed cleaning and several coats of paint.  I'm not sure the walls had been painted since the house was built in 1939.  Many of the rooms (I'd say "several", but there aren't that many rooms in this house!) had walls covered in bits of blue poster putty, which the previous owners inexplicably used to cover the walls with photos and cutouts from magazines.

It was very "A Beautiful Mind."

via

Not quite this bad, but close.

No room was quite as bad as the second bedroom.  Here it is, after the previous owners moved out and took all their stuff off the wall.  They were kind enough to leave all the blue putty behind.

Here's a closer view of the pattern of the walls.

Because I had two weeks to get the house ready before I moved in, I had to prioritize the rooms that would get repaired and painted.  Since this one needed the most work, and I didn't so much need a guest room right away, it was pretty far down on the list.

It took me 14 months to get to it.  

In the meantime, it became the "Ugly Room," because it just got uglier and uglier.  It also became storage for extra furniture and all my painting supplies from the rest of the house projects. 

Finally...FINALLY...I had to do something about this eyesore, because my good friend L decided to move in with me for a little while, and since she couldn't sleep in the laundry room, the Ugly Room was her only choice.

I hired someone to come and scrape all the blue stuff off the walls.  Scrape, scrub, and sand, actually.  Theoretically, I could have done it myself, but I was working insane hours at the time, and so I said "Ain't nobody got time fo' dat!" and called someone.  (Sweet Brown will never stop being funny. Ever.)

Anyway, once he was done, the walls were much smoother and ready to paint.

But of course, I waited until the last possible week before L moved in to paint the room, even though I had 3 months of notice.  That's how I roll.  Really, it's because I managed to sprain my ankle and my wrist, which put me out for a few weeks.  And it took some time to move everything out of the room...a lot of stuff had accumulated.

Excuses, excuses.

It took four days, a lot of sweat, and my mom's help, but it got done.  And now it's beeeyoootiful!  The walls and windows are, anyway.  I chose the paint color "Gypsy Moth" from Glidden's Martha Stewart Living line (from Home Depot), kind of a peachy beige.

After two coats of the paint + primer in satin finish, the walls are now 1000% better.

I chose the color specifically to go with these blinds that my mother made for me because she loves me (although, after the ordeal of making and then installing them, she might not love me quite so much).  I found large remnants of the fabric on sale shortly after I went into escrow, and fell in love.

The string is pointing up in the air because I'm holding it over my head while I snapped this shot. Mom hasn't installed the anchor (or whatever it's called) for that window yet.

It's no secret I love peacocks, probably because they have made an appearance all over the house.  So of course, I had to have this fabric.  Thankfully, L doesn't mind them and agreed to live with them while she lives here.  She's the bestest.  

Anyhow, it's amazing what a few coats of paint will fix!  Next up, the hallway and the laundry room. Someday.