repainting

I believe I mentioned last week that there was some spontaneous painting going on in my house. It may not be immediately clear what is happening so I will just cut to the chase.

I went from this:

to this! 

Please excuse the variations in the wall color, I've noticed that this gray looks vastly different in different lights and times of day but I assure you it is the same paint in all the photos. Anyway, I wanted to do this pretty much since the moment I painted my living room back in August. While I loved all of the molding in the apartment, as I was doing battle with the living room walls I became more and more frustrated by the condition of the inner moldings. They were so old and had been painted (and in some places it appears they were chipped away at) so many times that the edges were not straight or clean and with the high contrast of the gray and the white (not to mention that the white was semi-gloss trim paint so it was shiny next to the matte of the walls) it sort of drove me crazy from the beginning. But I thought I would be even more nuts if I repainted quickly so I set out to live with it as see how I felt in a while. I didn't change my mind however and in a fit of my signature brand of productive procrastination, I pushed stuff away from the walls and got to it. 

Since I had the leftover paint and i didn't have to tape anything off, it was pretty much the simplest paint job ever. I did three coats over the course of an afternoon (this paint seems to dry remarkably fast) and after he first coat I most definitely felt panic. It was patchy and looked about 3 shades lighter than the wall color, and I was beginning to strongly regret my rash choice and so I went and made some cookies while I waited to be able to start on a second coat. Luckily with just a few moments of starting on the second coat I was smiling and saying out loud "this looks so much better" 

I think with all the various doorways and windows in this room, and all of the trim, it just looked too busy and complicated and the walls being more.....solid, helps it to feel a bit calmer. Plus you can still see the moldings, and they actually look much straighter now that they are the same color as the wall, and it's all just a bit more subtle. Hard for me to do but I certainly like the effect. Overall, for something that didn't require me to buy any additional supplies, and took only an afternoon, I am quite enjoying to effect. Of course now I'm wishing I hadn't put it off for so long....