Bedroom Makeover #1 – Part 6: Adding the Trim & Final Reveal

With the walls all painted it’s time to put the trim back, caulk and paint the trim.  Most people hate painting trim – I love to paint trim. I almost always freehand trim rather than taking the time to tape.  I hate prep work and by the time someone else can tape a room, I can be finished painting.  You do have to have a very steady hand, and I’m fortunately lucky that way.

First step was to examine all the trim we had removed and make sure all the old caulk was removed.  Fortunately the old caulk came off very cleanly with just the use of a putty knife. The trim was a pre-primed MDF trim that the previous owners had never bothered to paint, which meant, it was in fairly pristine condition.

Once the caulk was removed I placed the pieces around the room.  Important Tip: As you are removing the trim, be sure to number the pieces so you can place them back in the same place / same order. Otherwise it will be like trying to work a jigsaw.

Now, I was ready to fire up the new pneumatic nailer. You can read the review of this marvelous piece of equipment here.

Once all the trim was reattached,  I went over all the seams and where the trim met the wall and caulked with a white, paintable silicone sealant.  Silicone will fair better than an acrylic sealant because it will expand with the joints.  I then filled the nail holes with wood putty, smoothed and waited for everything to dry.

Within 30 minutes, I was ready to paint.  When painting trim you want to be careful not to leave brush strokes.  I recommend a product call Floetrol at The Home Depot. It is a paint additive that is used to reduce brush strokes in latex paints and to make latex paints spray like oil base based.

After the trim was painted, I went back over the wall edge above the trim with the gray paint to even out the edge where the caulk met the wall.

Here’s the finished room..

I really like the bright white trim with the gray.  I used Snowcap White from Valspar available at Lowe’s

Since the bedroom is small (10X10) and we are putting a queen sized bed in the room, I wanted to optimize the closet to include fabric bins for those items that would typically be stored in a dresser/chest.  I lowered the hanging bar to approximately 5 feet high so that both shelves were easily reached.  There will be bins on both of the shelves for storage.

Below you can see the difference in color between the white trim I painted and the old white color.  I will be removing the  door and spray painting it for even coverage and no brush marks.  I’ll have an new article on how to spray paint a door once I have that completed

I still need to paint the ceiling fan, finish off the attic access panel, paint the door, create a headboard, decorate and a gazillion other things. Right now, I am just focused on making the room useable!

We moved the furniture into the room.  It is going’s to serve as Bob’s office/guest room.  We will be adding our old flat screen TV so he can go in there, surf the internet, watch his movies and nap whenever he wants. 🙂

Now to start on the other (identical, mirror image) bedroom which.  The second bedroom will ultimately become Bob’s workroom, so while the color and flooring will remain the same, the finishing with additional storage, cabinets and repurposed closet will be different.