Paint, Shelving and Imagination Transform Rental

This is hardly a saga to compete with tales of walls torn down, kitchens gutted or cottages turned into castles. When you’re renting, there are limits to the changes you can make.

But we had lived here for almost 10 years; I couldn’t see us moving soon and I was tired of the same old walls. So I painted them, tore out the old bookcases and rearranged the book shelves.

Simple enough, you say, but now my home has a warm peach glow and looks open and airy throughout; small changes, but what a difference.

The project started with a pair of dark bookcases made long ago for another house. The bookcases were fine when we first moved in, but 10 years later they looked old and they crowded an already small living room.

My heart cried out for the illusion of space, so one night I pulled the first bookcase down. I still hadn’t admitted to myself how much work I was going to do. I just knew that the bookcases had to go.

Dismantling the bookcases gave me the lumber for the bedroom shelves, recut and routered and painted dove gray. These replaced the cherry-stained pine shelves, which I recut and put up on brackets in the living room. But fresh new shelves can’t be put up on drab walls, so off I went to the paint store.

Premixed paint colors were pale and neuter; I wanted a warm, vibrant peach. I figured three gallons would do two bedrooms, the living room and hall.

With the first brush strokes on the bedroom wall I wondered whether my peach was perhaps a touch bold. Throwing caution to the winds, I completed the room, hung the dove-gray shelves, then painted the doors and windows the same gray with darker accents. The color of the walls receded to a livable degree.

I thought the bright peach might be too sharp for the living room, so I splashed some swatches on the walls in sunlight and shadow areas and meditated on them.

By the time my next day off came it was clear that I wanted a softer peach in the living room. I bought a gallon of cream paint and mixed a large dollop into the remaining two gallons of peach. My living room and hall were transformed--softer but still vibrant with color and deliciously fresh.

With only half a gallon of peach paint left to cover four walls, the ceiling and closet of my daughter’s former room, my paint was running low, so I lightened the peach again and ended up with about a gallon of “peaches ‘n cream.” I ran out before I could finish the closet, so I finished that off with the last of the cream.

Once the bookcases were torn down I needed a cabinet to fit below the window and between the new book shelves to hold the television and VCR as well as a multitude of tapes. After many unsuccessful shopping trips to furniture stores, I decided upon a simple design I could make myself.

My biggest financial outlay was the price of the 18-inch-wide boards that make up the frame of the cabinet and the three tape storage units that are incorporated into it. To facilitate electronic hook-ups and make it easier to move, I added heavy-duty casters. Few decisions I made were as good as that one.

With the walls freshly painted and bookcases bracketing the window and TV/VCR cabinet, the living room slipped together like a comfortable new shoe.

I used light- and dark-gray for the window frames and doors, and although it was a thoroughly nasty job, I don’t regret stripping the metal windows and doing a from-the- bottom-up refinishing job. Not only are the windows sharp and clean, free of rust and mold, but these 35-year-old windows close completely for the first time as if they were new.

I think my biggest mistake was in not admitting to myself that I was actually going to do the whole lot. Except for the initial plunge for the peach paint I bought a little here and there, ending up with repeated and unnecessary trips to various stores. Hindsight is great,but I think I could have planned that better.

A few helpful hints:

--The extension arm for the paint roller keeps you off ladders and makes it easier to move about the room.

--Put all of the furniture into the middle and cover it with drop cloths. Paint from a roller spatters in tiny little dots. Careful preparation means a lot less cleanup later.

--I used thin plastic gloves when I painted. Strip them off and your hands are perfectly clean. A little baby powder shaken inside makes them reusable and easier to put on.

--If you have to leave your painting for a few hours, put your paint roller into a plastic bag and twist-tie it around the handle. This will keep the paint from drying and you can pick up where you left off.

--The water-base paints available are wonderfully fast to clean up with water when still wet or a swab of alcohol if dried.

--When you plan to do it yourself, give yourself plenty of time. Goals are fine, but you want a finished job that you can take pride in.

--Make lists for your project to show the order your job will follow, then one for little things you don’t want to forget, such as touch-ups you notice while doing somethingelse.

--And don’t forget to follow your instincts. Although I made changes, sometimes taking a few days to decide, all of my decisions proved right in the end.

I did my redecoration while working five days a week, along with the usual housework. It took longer than it would have with help or an infusion of money, but it was a kick to watch as a dozen small projects began to come together.

Now that the job is finished I’m proud of the way my duplex looks, but seeing the metamorphosis as the days rolled by was as much fun. Not to be discounted is the feeling of pride and satisfaction that comes from doing it myself, proving I could, and loving the result.