Bedroom Refresh: Paint

Staying home during a pandemic gives you a lot of time to notice things. Like how many mosquito smears you can’t clean off your ceiling. I cranked the AC and stayed inside on the 100-degree days to freshen up my bedroom.

I liked the paint color when I chose it seven years ago, but years of grime on the walls (“ghosting”, and not the social media kind) had lent it a dark and dingy quality. You can see the stripes where the cold air leaking in at the rafters and gaps in insulation created the right conditions for particulates to stick. And then of course the smeared areas where I tried unsuccessfully to wash it.

So! Walls, ceiling, trim. All of it fresh and clean.

Bedroom Refresh: Lights

I rarely use the overhead lights in my bedroom, and I’ve tried to overlook the dated aesthetic. I finally decided to rip them out and replace them with sleeker more modern fixtures. I found a four-pack on Amazon that fit the bill nicely.

I wired the first one myself, but it was a giant pain in the butt to deal with the recessed cans. The old can lights were connected to junction boxes mounted to the rafters, and there was not enough play in the wire to connect the new light. I turned it on long enough to confirm that I liked the look, and then I turned off the circuit and waited for my electrician.

Bedroom Refresh: Screens

You all know how much I love my canine visitors. And how much they love to visit. Sometimes a little too much. This screen had been showing its age, and I’d had to press the spline back into place a few times. And then one weekend a particularly adorable and rambunctious pup came to visit, and I made the unspeakable error of being on the opposite side of the screen from him. While he soon after learned how to use the dog door, there was no coming back for the screen. It was toast.

I bought a few rolls of pet-proof screening and a roller tool for installation, and watched a few YouTube videos. It really was pretty simple, but not exactly easy. The new screen is thicker than the old one, so pressing in the spline took extra muscle. And then trimming off the extra screen resulted in a couple nicks in the new screen… so, imperfect, but not bad for a first try.

The new screen is slightly darker, but not enough that I notice a big difference. The other door is next on my list, and eventually the doors downstairs.

Let. Me. IN! Or OUT! Or… wherever you are!

Kept the mosquitos out, but man… what a look.

Bedroom Refresh: Blinds

The same soot-like color that tinted my walls had turned my formerly-white blinds into a foggy grey. I tried to clean them… even taking one down to bathe it in bleach. No luck.

The new blinds are an improvement over the old ones, too… the two-part shade has an upper semi-transparent gauze to it that lets me see out but blocks the hot sun and the view in during the day. At night, I lift the light-blocking shade for complete privacy and a dark sleeping environment.

Bedroom Ceiling Fan

The brass-and-oak ceiling fan in my bedroom rattled when it was on, so it was almost never on. Even the ReStore wouldn’t take it… they already had a number of brass fans that no one was buying.

I also wanted to have better control of the fan speed and light brightness, so we added the Lutron Fan Control option as well.

• Hunter Crestfield Indoor Ceiling Fan with LED Lights and Pull Chain Control, 52", Noble Bronze

• Lutron MA-LFQHW-WH Maestro Fan Control and Dimmer Kit, White