Living Room Reveal Part 1… What took you so long?

The Living Room Reveal Took So Long ‘Cos…

To start with, it was the ceiling. After painting the bedroom ceiling dark (here), and loving it, Brian suggested doing the living room one too. I didn’t need too much convincing, since I’m a huge fan of the Abigail Ahern style of painting everything out in one colour. Brian wasn’t for painting the cornice in the bedroom, so I left it white, and it works. So, since the cornice in the living room is so crisp and beautiful, we decided to leave it white too. And it works too!

The second issue, which was something that had bugged me for a while, but was made more obvious by the dark ceiling, was the vast expanse of white window. In my original plan (here) the bay window shows two grey mullions separating each window of the bay. This didn’t actually exist. What was there, was in fact just two pieces of shiny white upvc window. Eugh!

So, I decided to undertake a bit of cosmetic surgery, by cladding on wooden mouldings, to be painted the same colour as the rest of the framing. Easy, eh?

No.

Trying to get something ready made, in the right width was impossible, so I had to cobble together my own. This would  be okay if the DIY store actually sold wood that was straight. Ultimately, I ended up gluing and screwing into the upvc to get the new framing to lay flat. This of course required filling and sanding, before painting. An easy couple of hours job, became days.

I moan, but it was totally worth it. The darker mullions help to separate and elongate each window of the bay which also helps to break up the big bulk of white. The windows themselves are quite nice sash and case style (despite being upvc) which only looked ‘plastic’ because of the crappy mullions. Now, they look like really nice traditional windows. Yay for dark mullions.

Mullions. I like that word.

Something Else Wasn’t Right…

With all the lovely dark greyness going on, a couple of things were drawing a bit too much attention. The radiators.

When I first moved in, I had the heating upgraded through the house and had new radiators installed throughout. While I wanted the traditional style column radiators, I didn’t want to use up the wall space that the original radiators covered. I opted for one small traditionally proportioned radiator and one vertical. The room had the height, so why not use it!

Unfortunately, I have delusions of a champagne lifestyle, with the reality being a lemonade budget. To get ‘options’ you need money. The options were limited. Vertical, traditional style radiators on my budget, came in one colour. White.

Yay For Halfords!

Last week, I finally bit the bullet and painted the radiators.

Having had a ‘radiatortastrophe’ earlier in the year, we had a burst radiator lying in the shed… perfect for testing paint on. It worked.

To cut a big long story short;

Halfords Etch Primer (here)

Halfords Rover Tempest Grey Car Spray Paint (here)

Both are very quick drying and gave a fantastic, almost factory finish. With no sanding! I have even tried scraping the paint with my nail and not a mark!

Just be sure to mask off and protect the surrounding areas open all the windows before you start. I don’t want anyone dying. Not on my shift!

The radiators now tie in perfectly. I couldn’t quite believe that I got a grey with similar tones to those of the wall colour. Although it does’t really show in the photo. I hadn’t thought of Halfords for solid colour as I automatically think ‘metallic’ when I think of car paint colours. Worth a look though if you’re after something specific.

So, there it is. My list of excuses as to why the living room reveal has taken so long. Perfectly legit, I’d say.