The Fifth Wall

Hey hey! I’m back today with one of my FAVORITE changes to make to a room. OK, the actual process is not my favorite (it stinks) but the result is one I’m hooked on.

It’s of course, your “fifth wall” – the ceiling. I was painting ceilings way before blogging – I’ve just always loved the look. I think it stems for my love of a pop of color next to bright white trim. I feel like if I’m going to put up crown molding I want to SEE it the molding. Lord knows it’s not easy to put up -- I want it to make an impact. :)

I painted the Bub’s bathroom and nursery ceiling and then kept it that color for his big boy room (and carried the color down to the backs of the built ins):

I did it in my office, more than once. It was a rusty red color (twice) so I’ve now painted that ceiling THREE times:

It looks aqua-ish here but it’s really a light blue.

As I found these pictures I realized how much I love blue on a ceiling. Of course I was daring back in my “paint everything black” days years ago – a couple of our ceilings went really dark:

REAL dark. Too dark. You can see that I changed  it to blue last year.

When we had hardwoods put in the dining area I realized just how dark it was:

It was like a cave. Not my best decision ever. :)

So when that room got changed up last year I painted that ceiling with a really light gray:

All of those rooms I painted myself – most at least twice. A smallish room I have no problem with, but when I wanted to paint the family room and kitchen ceiling years ago, I hired out:

It’s HUGE. I had that done probably, gosh…six or seven years ago? Maybe more?

I did the same color as the walls (Sisal by Ralph Lauren), just in a flat sheen:

For years it didn’t bother me, but lately, probably over the past two or so, it’s been driving me nutty. It was just SO heavy and dark.

Thing is, we have some repair work do to on the kitchen ceiling and I kept putting it off till we fixed that. But a few months ago I just couldn’t take it anymore. I bought the paint the week of Thanksgiving and actually thought I would try painting it “real quick.” Umm…I got busy, thank goodness, you know – with those holidays? (What was I thinking??)

Anyway, the paint sat for months, until I started my snowball of projects in the family room a couple weeks ago. I started painting the ceiling and got about a fourth of that big space done. You can actually see where I stopped in the reflection of the mirror:

Ha!! I wondered if anyone would pick up on that.

But there were two problems. One, it was KILLING me. The last time I did this was last summer in the dining room and it wasn’t that bad. I don’t know if I’m getting old or what, but goodNESS. It was horrible. I even tried putting a travel pillow around my neck cause it. was. burning. It didn’t help.

And then I noticed a teensy issue – the paint was SHINY. Now I know a shiny ceiling in the right room is pretty cool, but it’s not what I was going for. I like mine as flat as possible, not a lick of shine. But there it was:

Ugh. So that, combine with the fact that the paint was not going to cover in one coat, and the pain in my neck -- all caused me to call the professionals. This room is just more than I can handle I guess.

I’m SO glad I got help with it! It took two days and two coats and the second coat was the right sheen:

I had color matched this color in a True Value paint, and it was flat, but they used an enamel base, which caused the sheen. Why they used enamel for a flat paint, I do not know. The second coat was a Sherwin Williams paint in flat.

The color is called Nuance and is the lightest color on the paint chip that the Analytical Gray is on (that we used throughout a big portion of the house).

The new color is not quite white, it’s a light gray and I love it:

It still makes the crown pop but brightens up the room considerably. And many of you saw the other change in here – I took the ceiling fan down and replaced it with a lantern from Home Depot. The only time we use the fan is when I burn something in the oven, so I’m determined not to burn things anymore. Or I’ll just bring in the fan from the garage. ;)

The fan just took up so much visual space, the lantern looks SO much better! And we actually use it – the fan cast the light down so it was harsh. This keeps it up so we turn on this one ALL the time now.

Here’s an idea of how the darker ceiling looked before with the fan:

And here it is with those changed (and a few others a long the way too):

Wow, what a difference, eh?? It feels SO much better to me in there now. The walls will eventually go to a color between Nuance and Analytical Gray, I haven’t decided what yet. So the walls will flow better with the ceiling eventually.

For now, I’m glad it’s just done. Are you a painted ceiling fan? Or are you one of ceiling fans? What? I know many love a crisp white ceiling but for me it’s a little touch that I love to add to a space. Now I need to go clean out the oven so I don’t need that fan anymore. ;)