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Do It Yourself: Priming & Painting the Apartment

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Last week, we shared our search for the perfect gray paint for our apartment: Do It Yourself: Painting the Apartment. After deciding upon Benjamin Moore's "Abalone" and completing one half of the room a few weeks ago, we rolled up our sleeves and finished the room this weekend...

 
 

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The reason painting a small space is such a BIG commitment — EVERYTHING had to me moved to one side of the room. Bookcases and credenzas were emptied and piled on top of other furniture. After painting, we'll have to sort through all of this...

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Though the dark color helped mask the wall's MANY imperfections and provide a cozy atmoshpere. The highly-reflective green/brown's time had run out. The scuff-marks are where I attempted to sand the crater-like bumpy walls...

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After the first coat of primer...

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After the second coat of primer...

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Abalone! After four coats of paint (2 primer plus 2 Abalone) it was ready. The matte finish is perfect and hides the wonky and crooked walls. The light color also brightens the whole space. Now we just have to deal with moving back all the furniture and sorting through the piles...stay tuned for a look at the COMPLETE room and our favorite new painting tool!

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painting, fixing & repair, DIY

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Comments (9)

Wow! You worked way harder than me this weekend! Looks good and I can't wait to see the walls in the context of a room.

posted by peekay on November 10th 2008 at 9:19am
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Ooh, do tell about your favorite new painting tool soon! I have some painting to do within the next week.

posted by wig3000 on November 10th 2008 at 10:19am
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beautiful result; i have to ask about that bright orange thing on the wall. what is it?

posted by formosagirl on November 10th 2008 at 11:41am
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formosagirl - it is a bike rack.

posted by Craftypants on November 10th 2008 at 12:00pm
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Formosagirl - it's my Cycloc bike rack, seen here: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/test-lab/cycloc-bicycle-storage-in-the-test-lab-024691

posted by Aaron on November 10th 2008 at 12:50pm
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Wow. I don't know if it's the primer or the matte finish but the wall looks a thousand times better.

posted by RichardinLA on November 10th 2008 at 2:16pm
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RichardinLA - it's totally the matte finish!

posted by Aaron on November 10th 2008 at 6:02pm
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Yikes. I haven't been priming walls before painting them. Is that only necessary when covering a dark wall or should I do it every time?
thanks

posted by Dey on November 11th 2008 at 4:33am
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looks great aaron! can't wait to see the room all reassembled!

posted by anabab on November 11th 2008 at 5:52am
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