The Garage Project #2 - clean slate and paint

6. Clean Slate

By the end of Day 1 the garage was cleaned out and items were divided into piles (that were in the backyard).  Next, I washed the walls, swept, and vacuumed the floor. Even without paint the space looked better.  I could have stopped at this point and skipped painting all together, but David had mentioned it as something he was interested in getting done in the garage.  Seeing how there are lots of things he has already done, I wanted to tackle this for him.

 

This was the longest day in the entire process.  I found it helpful to work sun-up to sun-down to get a major chunk of work done.  Plus, at this point, I still thought I could finish it all in a weekend.

 

7. Painting, painting, painting

I bought a can of this paint.  I thought it was great!

One can of paint... yes, I was naive.  In the end, I needed 5 gallons for our whole garage.

 

By the end of day 1, this coat was up. By morning, I knew it was going to take more than 2 coats to cover the paneling and that this project would not be done over the weekend :(

So, I decided to paint a message on the wall.

Over the next month I worked on Saturdays and Sundays during nap times painting the garage.  I wasn't in a hurry, so this worked.  But, it was a pain to drag it out for so long.  During the weeks in between I continued researching products that we could use to organize the garage.  Also, David knew I was working on a surprise so he didn't venture into the garage :)

 

It is amazing how the paint made the space feel more organized and like an extension of the house.  I'm super stoked about it!

 

Blunder alert- Do you see the orange shelf on the wall?  I painted the garage and all the shelves in a latex semi gloss, which was awesome, but it peeled right off of the orange oil based painted shelf.  Oddly enough, the prior owner did not paint all of the shelves with that same paint so it has not been a problem elsewhere.  Even today, I have yet to repaint that shelf.  But it will get done at some point!

 

Stay tuned!