Guest Room: Prep Work

Slowly but surely, progress is being made in the guest room.

I purchased primer last weekend, but before any painting could be done I needed to do a little prep work. The wooden curtain rod in the below picture needed to go. It was installed by the previous homeowners and just doesn't go with the decor I'm planning. In addition, the installation was very loose and it seemed that any bit of weight would cause the right side would rip out of the wall.

Jordan worked late last night so once Lucy was in bed I had some time to get started on some prep work in the guest room. After taking down the curtain rod, I was left with this mess around the window.

The outer damage is from the wooden curtain rod. As you can see on the right side, the damage was pretty nasty and left a large hole to be repaired. The inner, square spot was leftover from a previous curtain rod installation that the was never removed when they installed the new one. I have no clue what the tiny holes right around the window are from.

A few minutes of spackling and the wall around the window is on it's way to being patched and prepped for paint. I let the spackle dry over night and will sand and scope out the progress later this evening. Because of the large holes left by the curtain rod, I will most likely need to do a little more spackle work until the wall is completely patched and smooth.

Here is all the crap (read: hardware) that was removed from the wooden curtain rod, the previous curtain rod that was never removed, and from the blinds that were installed inside the window.

That was really the only prep work that needed to be done before paint. Normally I would also prep the room and use painter's tape to tape off the trim, but since I'm using white primer and white paint I decided to save myself the hour of taping the room. I can freehand around the trim and because the room is white, if I smudge a little it won't be noticeable. Plus the trim will need a fresh coat of paint at the end anyway.

I took a vacation day from work on Monday and I'm treating myself to a three day weekend. My mom is still going to watch LJ for us on Monday so I can get to work painting the walls and hopefully knocking out another "smelly" project I have for the guest room. I'm predicting a very productive weekend.

My canvas is finished and I just need to do a few touch ups on the paint and find a home.

I'll share with you next week my tutorial to create your own chevron design.

Happy Friday!!