Now that plastering our fourth bedroom is complete and the new plywood floor is installed, we’re super excited to be able to move onto the more fun part of getting this room finished and we’re starting with painting – everything.
Whilst our room doesn’t look like this any more, it’s still a long way off completion.
We’d really like to be able to use this room for a few different purposes, so we wanted to create a room that is fairly neutral but that will also be nice for when our nephews and niece come to stay.
We knew from the start that we wanted to paint our floor white and if you follow us on Facebook, you may have already seen that we narrowed down our colour choice for the walls to soft blue-greys and greens.
We really liked all of them, but decided that Borrowed Light was too similar to the paint colour in our guest bedroom next door and that Pavillon Blue was just too light and wouldn’t contrast enough with the white floor. We both really liked Theresa’s Green, but as we were planning to paint the ceiling in the same colours as the walls thought that it may be a bit dark. So, the winning colour is (insert drumroll here) Pale Powder.
It’s a lovely soft green with grey undertones. It has a really calm feel and is lovely and fresh without feeling cold. As you can see, we painted the floor, too (more on that soon!).
Painting everything in the same colour also has the advantage that you save time as there’s no need to do any detailed cutting in which, considering I finished painting the room the day our guests arrived, had to be a good thing.
Painting new plaster is different to painting any other painted surface as it soaks up any moisture much quicker. If you’re wondering about how to paint newly plastered walls, this is what we always do:
- Let the walls thoroughly dry for at least a week (much longer if you can)
- Prime the walls with watered down emulsion first we use roughly 1 part paint to 4 parts water
- Prime the walls again – if we’re painting the walls and ceiling in light colours, we add one full coat of white emulsion paint on top of the watered down emulsion and then apply your chosen paint colour as normal
- Apply two coats of your chosen paint finish. It gives you a much more even finish than if you apply just one coat of paint
As we’d hoped, the slight bow where we had to repair the ceiling is much less noticeable now, too. Painting the ceiling and the walls in the same colour have definitely helped disguise it a bit.
I personally love painting. It’s such an easy way to transform a room and whilst our colour choices are usually fairly neutral and safe, a new coat of paint is something that always seems to make a huge difference to the whole feel of a room.
Here’s how we’re getting on so far and what we still have left to do.
- Strip wallpaper – done.
- Move boiler – done.
- Replace lintel – done.
- Replace window – done.
- Add architrave around the new window
- Repair ceiling – done.
- Plaster walls & ceiling – done.
- Repair floor – done.
- Strip & paint (or replace) skirting boards
- Strip & paint doorframe
- Lay new floor – done.
- Paint walls – done.
- 2nd Fix electrics
- Furnish
We’re obviously didn’t quite manage to completely finish the room in time for our guests, but we did manage to get the room finished enough to make it useable. It’s super annoying to not be able to hide the steel over the window yet. We’re still waiting for it to be signed off, which should really be happening any day now. We’ll also be sharing the details on painting our plywood floor soon.
Do you also set yourself unrealistic deadlines and try to finish a million projects before you have visitors? What do you think about painting the ceiling the same colour as your walls?
Love the pictures of your newly done room.
I’ve been thinking of painting my bedroom ceiling the same colour as the walls but wasn’t sure how it would look. Your pictures have convinced me to go ahead so thank you.
I don’t do facebook so could you please tell me what make of paint you used? I’m in UK so will be able to get a chart ~ thanks
Thanks Lucy. I like the ceiling in the same colour and think it works well. The paint we used is Pale Powder by Farrow and Ball. (Sorry, should have included a link!).
Good luck with your painting!
Cx
Thanks Christine for reply and link :~)
Having my walls insulated & dried out so will be awhile
before painting but at least I can plan :~)
You’re welcome!
Cx
I love that colour!
Thanks! It’s definitely the most cottage-y colour we’ve used so far in our home and we love it!
Cx
What a pretty colour, I agree it looks warm but calm and peaceful at the same time. I remember the first time I painted onto new plaster I just slapped the paint on, I knew so little back then X
Thanks! I always find it hard to tell from small tester patches if a colour will work and am always relieved when it does!
Cx
Hi Christine, Looks like the room is coming together quite nicely! And I also love the colour nice and crisp. Was just wondering what your reasoning was for deciding not to put any coving into the room? Did you guys think about adding it or was that never something you considered? Just curious really :-)
Thanks Saskia! We have coving in most other rooms and love it. The only reason that we haven’t added it here, is because the ceiling is so uneven. We painted the ceiling the same colour as the walls to “hide” the bump and thought that coving would probably make the unevenness more visible.
In general, we’re trying to reinstate as many period features as we can, but this room would never of actually had coving as it’s “just” a back bedroom. We’re still trying to decide on adding a picture rail though!
Cx
Ok cool!
Picture rail yes that is something I am always umming and arring about. Darrell loves picture rail. I am looking at it from the cleaning squad point of view and all I see is strips collecting dust, hahaha.
Haha, you’re right about the dust – ours are always covered in it (don’t tell anyone ;)) but they are pretty and as our ceilings are so high they really tend to finish the room off.
Cx
I was just wondering what you think about Farrow and Ball paint. I’ve heard mixed reviews. Consequently have used Little Green, and been pleased with the results. The room looks good. I enjoy reading your blog and have picked up a few useful tips. I’ve painted three floors in our house ( using Little Green floor paint) so will be interested in hearing your experience.
We love Little Green paint, too and we’ve always been happy with the result. We’re really happy with the F&B paint finish on our bedroom floor, too. When painting walls with Farrow and Ball paint, we tend to find that it always needs two coats to give you a good coverage. We painted our front door in F&B Rectory Red about 4 years ago and the colour has definitely faded (although there is a porch infront of it). At the end of the day, we always choose our paints by the colour we would like and aren’t really bothered about brands.
Cx
Hi Christine, love the blog have been following your home progress for a while now. I’m doing my first ever decorating in the house I bought last year. I’ve already managed to make a bump in my ceiling by incorrect use of pollyfiller…sigh. I was just wondering, what brand of paint do you use for the undercoat before you put on your desired colour? Thanks :)
Thanks Izzy! We always use the same paint for all undercoating (although some brands do have recommended undercoats, especially for dark colours). We use this white paint as an undercoat and also as a white finish for ceilings, etc. It’s cheap and we think it covers well. Depending on the surface you’re painting it’s probably a good idea to dilute it a bit with water. We recently painted our newly plastered fourth bedroom and new plaster always needs a bit of extra prep. You can read about what we did here.
Hope that’s some help & thanks for following our DIY adventures.
Cx
i like the way you have done this with the room, and share it with all of us, & thank you dear for sharing your experience with us, i’m going to paint my room next weekend & will follow you given method & i think i’ll make one to-list too