un-Paint It Black

All the walls in the apartment that are not glass are black: flat black, satin black, glossy black; the bathroom areas are flat black with sand in it, impossible to repair or match.  The back room is dark, despite being a hall of mirrors. The bathroom where an in-wall toilet tank was replaced has a terrible patching job. In the bedroom, we removed an unnecessary wall mirror and ripped out an over-built night stand, leaving gaping white areas in the paint. We decided repainting was in order -- not the entire flat, not yet anyway. 

This post is probably only useful if you've done renovation yourself, or at least a medium-sized painting project. The next post should be more fun!

After removing the gym-sized Everlast punching bag from its massive support in the ceiling we were left with gaping holes, so we patched them, then repainted the entire structural beam and column with a "satin" black we had in the house. When dried, it was more a gloss, reflecting even the alarm camera; a bit garish, but it's much better.

We hit our favorite ferreteria, CaurBCN just a block away, to get a flat medium gray to cover over the old gray. Since we didn't know the original color, we knew we'd have to paint over everything -- no biggie with a roller. (Strangely, here, you cannot seem to buy replacement rollers, we've gotta buy a roller and the wand/handle -- seems a waste). We started where the 2-meter wide mirror had been, and my mediocre patching of the ex-nightstand. Then continued on behind the bed (a 500-pound custom behemoth of steel studs and drywall!), and the wall facing the living room.

 

Bedroom after

We then went after the back room (we don't have a better name for it) which is glass, mirrors, and an oppressive black wall. When Irene wasn't looking, I started in on the bathroom, with a pretty embarrassing attempt to merge the bad toilet repair plaster job with the old sand coat -- lipstick on a pig. First, the cutting in with a white primer to cover the black.

Then, cutting in and rolling with the same flat medium gray we used in the front of the flat. Before and after, for the back room and bathroom:

The taping may have been the hardest part, but certainly made the cutting in and rolling a lot faster. Where I didn't do a great job, I had some cleanup with razor blades, but mostly on glass and aluminum trim, so not that bad. 

Once "our ship comes in" with our furniture from Virginia, we may attack the front of the house and unify the three or four different black paints with one to tie it together; we just can't decide: flat for its quietness (but shows paw prints), or a minimal satin to reflect light (but shows poor paint technique).