Home Office: Days 5 and 6

This weekend, I was able to complete a couple more days of work on the office. After doing a lot of research on why my stencil was not looking good, I found that the textured walls in our home require you to use painter' caulk to get a clean line on any kind of decorative painting... This just did not seem feasible with a stencil. I suppose it could have been done, but I unfortunately do not have endless amounts of time to just be placing, caulking and carefully painting a stencil like that. It would have taken me probably a whole day just to do one row.

So instead, the hubs suggested that I do some striping instead. I liked the idea, as it at least allowed me to use my secondary paint color that I really liked. Here is the end result:

Once the walls were done, I needed to start focusing back on the furniture. The desk is finally all sanded down. Stripping and sanding was a bear, so I am so glad to have that part done. The next step for the desk was supposed to then be to stain it, and I tried the grey stain on a discreet area in the back. It lightens up the color a lot, but it still has a very brown under-tone. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue on with the stain, or if I'll be shifting over to paint. I need to make that decision by next weekend I think.

And last but not least, the shelves are finally all blue. I re-assembled them, but the damn finish of the original furniture was difficult to cover properly. (I later learned that I needed a special primer to start with). So I ended up with a lot of scratches and chipped paint...  I spent a portion of the afternoon doing touch-up on these areas, and once everything is dry, I'll do a satin clear protective coat on top. After reading up on the proper way to do this, I'm hoping that will be a good solution for me.

My goal is to finish the room by the end of the month now. I really thought I could knock it all out when I was at home over the New Year holiday, but everything has turned out to be more difficult than I thought. This has all been a very big learning "opportunity."  haha   Hopefully I'll have some more finished photos for you guys next weekend.