Bedroom Progress: Little by Little

This past weekend we finally finished painting our walls Benjamin Moore's  'American White.'  After painting our first room ever, we can now officially say this: we. realllllly. hate. painting.  I was in charge of putting painter's tape around the trim and baseboards, along with edging in, while Tim used the roller.  End result?  We absolutely love the color and can't wait to paint our other rooms even though it's not our favorite thing to do.

We left our trim and baseboards unpainted although they would look amazing painted a nice, crisp white next to our light gray walls.  The only problem is our whole house's trim and baseboards are unpainted so we don't want to break the consistency.  So, instead, we decided that we're going to hang some thick cotton white curtains.  We found some inexpensive 84" curtains at good ole' Target in 'sailcloth white' (only 18.99 for two panels!) that will look amazing when we finally get around to hanging them.  

There was one tiny snag in the painting process.  Prepping and painting a room is really simple right?  So what could possibly go wrong?  Before we painted, we applied spackle, let it dry, and then started sanding. Mid-sanding job, Tim read the spackle label.  It basically said it may cause cancer and to wear a mask.  Most people probably wouldn't think twice about reading the label, because spackling is pretty straightforward, right?  At this point we were maskless and the dust was everywhere.  With a little research, Tim also discovered that spackle dust can clog vacuums and most vacuum warranties do not cover this.  We love our yellow Mr. Dyson, so we went out to Home Depot to buy a shop vac.  We went with a Rigid 14 gallon and bought a small particle catching bag so the fine spackle dust wouldn't be blown around the room by the exhaust.

Tip: To save yourself from inhaling potentially hazardous dust and a messy clean-up, don't use sandpaper.  Instead, take a damp sponge and gently rub the spackled area that needs to be smoothed out.

Before shot: 

Progress shot:

Our walls can sometimes look a little white because they're a very light shade of gray, but up against a white piece of furniture you can see their true color.

 We still need to refinish our thrift store nightstands, hang curtains, and get some accent pillows for the bed, but it's coming together!