Sorry to leave you hanging, I anticipated we’d have this wrapped up by now…but we hit another snag. What’s that you ask? A giant paint bubble.
After we painted the walls, let them dry for a day and a half, we were ready to start getting things back up in the bathroom. We put in the discount vanity set, which included hanging up the mirror. Since the mirror had no hanging hardware or any discrete way to hang it, we went the “liquid nails” route. We coated the back of the mirror with liquid nails (it’s a really strong adhesive that looks like caulk when it comes out), and stuck it to the wall. We held it in place for 10 MINUTES (yes minutes, they were long ones, that mirror is heavy) to set and then left it propped up with books for the night so it wouldn’t slide down while it set up the rest of the way. When I checked in on it after work, I discovered this:
Yep, that’s right, a GIANT bubble near where a bit of the liquid nails had squished out. I popped it with a utility knife and then cut it out. I was really disappointed because as I was cutting the paint away, more kept peeling up. So not only did I prime the entire room with oil based primer, guaranteed to stick, but then painted 3 coats with a paint + primer paint, the paint was still not sticking to the wall for whatever reason. As I inspected closer around the mirror, there were several other similarly sized bubbles. I’m baffled, and assume it must be some reaction to the liquid nails, since the rest of the bathroom still looks okay. I cut all the bubbles lightly sanded the edged and then recoated with a few more layers of paint. Since we had wet paint in the room, we didn’t want to do any of the things we needed to do to finish it (sand the door frame, and hang crown molding) since we were afraid to mess the paint up. So while we were watching paint dry, we did other necessary things like caulking the trim.
We took the trim off, I painted it white, and then Steve reattached it. He sealed the top of the trim with paintable caulk to give it a more seamless and finished look.
Here’s a look at the caulked top seam. It made an incredible amount of difference in how finished the trim looks, I couldn’t believe it! As for the process of painting the trim, it was pretty easy, just took a lot of waiting. We removed it, sanded it all down, and then I applied 4 coats of Behr paint and primer using a 2″ high-density foam roller. They sell these at Lowe’s in the paint aisle. They are awesome become they leave a really smooth finish and don’t show any roller marks/brush strokes. Easy peasy and incredibly worth it. It brightens up the whole room!
Now, on to a paint review. For our living room/kitchen we used Behr Paint & Primer for the first 1.5 coats. We ran out just short of finishing the kitchen. I opted to get Behr latex paint (no primer) to finish up. It covered fine, but it was pretty runny and a little splattery. I decided if I’m buying a paint at Home Depot, Behr Paint + Primer is the way to go. As I mentioned in the blue selection post, when I decided on blue I opted to head to Sherwin Williams and save the 25 minute round trip drive to Home Depot, especially since their paint was on sale. I purchased their “super paint”, latex paint + primer in Satin finish (it doesn’t come in eggshell).
I was unimpressed all around. The Behr Paint +Primer is low VOC, which I didn’t think made a huge difference, but painting with the Sherwin Williams paint I got a HORRIBLE headache and had to stop half way through and get my mask to finish. No mask needed with the Behr. It’s been a week since I painted (except for the bubble fixing touch ups) and the house STILL smells of paint. On top of that, it was extremely splattery. I was covered in blue paint, which has never really happened to me while painting before. Top that off with the bubbling/peeling situation, and I’m a Behr Paint + Primer fan for good. The crazy thing is the Super Paint was similarly priced when it was 30% off to the Behr, but regular price is $45.00! Makes the $31.00 paint look like a bargain.
We’re back on track today, Steve is hanging some crown and I am painting the door frame. Hopefully a full reveal coming to a computer near you…dare I say…tomorrow?? Stay tuned!
Want to catch up on the bathroom? Check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and Part 7.
