Nursery Prep Work

You know when you have that room that you keep meaning to get to but somehow never do? Behold our former junk room! Which is now on it's way to becoming the new nursery. Took me long enough.

It was also one of those rooms that turns out to need more prep work than you anticipated.

I may have mentioned before that all the trim upstairs had a peeling paint problem because several layers of latex paint had been painted over oil-based paint. This room was the worst so far.

The first few pictures are from my phone. Because at 6 months pregnant, I saw no reason to make a trip down the stairs when I had my trusty smart phone with me. Although the extra exercise would have been worth it, I'm sure.

This closet door was the worst. I tried to peel off as much as I could, thinking that it would stop and I could sand the edges and just prime over it. Nope. It just kept going. And it was everywhere.

The window sill, the built-ins, the baseboards, the doors. Ugh.

My sister kinda got into the paint demolition. We couldn't get it all off so what was left was sanded and primed. 

Finally, we got to the priming step. Which I kinda skipped out on since I wanted to cover everything the right way with oil-based primer. Oil-based is nasty, fumey stuff that will singe the hairs in your nose. No painting for me. Though it didn't really matter because from that one room upstairs the fumes spread through the whole house, top to bottom.

Thank you, kind friends and family, for sacrificing your nose hairs.

The built-ins have this weird laminate thing on top of the desk area. WEIRD. It needs to be painted. I brought out the electrical sander and sanded that down with some 100 grit sandpaper. Hopefully, it's roughed up the surface enough that the two coats each of oil-based primer, paint, and some polyacrylic, will hold up to the kids.

Two coats of primer was necessary for the raw wood inside the shelves. The wood was also full of knots, so before priming, I filled as many of the cracks and small holes as I could with spackle. Should I have used wood filler instead? Probably.

Oh, and we painted the ceiling too. And by "we" I mean my aforementioned kind friends and family members.

It is so great to have all the prep FINISHED! I had originally planned to have the entire nursery finished by now. My goal is by Christmas. That will give Little Man two months to get used to the new room and toddler bed. I hope.

You can checkout the before for this room here and here.

Time for the paint!


I may be linking up here.