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I have a through-the-wall air conditioner unit that sticks out like a sore thumb in my white dove living room. It's especially noticeable because it's at eye level. My question is, can I just paint it to match the walls in normal BM paint? Should I worry about the condensation that forms when it is in use? Should I just leave it alone? I own, if that's a consideration.

Thanks!

MS -- If you are going to paint the plastic, you should use paint specially formulated for adhering to plastic. There are several in any paint store. They also come in aerosols, which you may find easier to use (if you have a ventilated area or exterior) to get a light coat in the vents without clogging them. Which raises the main issue -- the body of the cover is a large vent that sucks the warm air out of the room and through the filter -- you need to be sure not to clog those vents.

This may sound too obvious, but you need to remove the cover, take out the filter, etc. and do not paint the cover on the unit. If you get paint on the coils or air handler they will not be as effective.

Hi - I feel silly asking, but am trying to figure something out...I have the Lindmon wood blinds from ikea and it says you can cut them to any size window you want - but I can't seem to figure out how that would work. It seems if you cut them from the bottom it would mess up the mechanism that helps the slats all stay together and go up and down with the blind?

lightenup -

It's metal, vents on the top which are easy to cover. Does that change anything?

Hi - I was wondering if anyone has seen a wall-mounted version of the popular spine style book cases like those available from DWR, CB2 and West Elm. I saw a horizontal version in Chiasso catalog (I think), but my space needs a vertical mount. Thanks for info you have!

MS -- If this is one of those large rectangluar box A/C units that you see in virtually every post-war NYC apartment, there is no issue with painting it. In fact, the bigger issue often is that there is four layers of paint on there, and some needs to be taken off or it will look terrible or the vents will be clogged. The front cover of these units come off rather easily (it pulls up and toward you) -- I would take it off for painting purposes as it will make the job of painting easier and allow you to cover the controls, coils and/or fins under the top vents (the top also can be removed, but that is more work than it is worth) -- I'd paint the vents too.

You can use regular paint (I have had many a landlord that did so), but I would get a closely matching Rustoleum or other rust inhibiting paint intended for metal. Two reasons: (i) metal does not look particularly good (or clean particularly well) with the texture of wall paint, and (ii) you may avoid future rust stains from condensation. Cleaning is an important consideration because, unlike your walls, the A/C draws air (and dust) toward itself, which sticks to the condensation. Alternatively, you could put on a little rust inhibiting primer, and follow with your BM paint, though I would only do so with a high gloss version of your color.

Thanks for the extremely detailed (and extremely useful) answer!

My partner and I share a queens sized bed but have seperate twin duvets. Because of this I am having trouble finding nice bed linen for our bed. Does anywhere have a good source for twin duvet covers that are good quality (I really love super soft fabrics so a high thread count is a must) but not super expensive? Because we live in Australia it would need to be available online.

p.s. also we have two black cats so any bed linen cannot be white or a really light colour because the fur would show up instantly!

Thanks!