Painting Starts Today! Also, Progress Has Been Made in the Crawl Space Storage

Welcome to the 719th Metamorphosis Monday! How was your weekend? I hope it was great! I spent it working here in the crawl space area of the basement. My muscles are spent! When I last shared this area, I had just started priming shelves in this space for painting. I also planned to use Drylock on the walls since it’s what I found recommended when I did a search for the best paint for basement walls.

 

I’ve made a lot of progress. In this photo, I had finished painting the walls and had completed priming all the shelves and their supports. The only wall area that wasn’t painted yet was the wall area underneath the bottom shelves.

 

Here’s how it looks this morning. I painted the shelves with Benjamin Moore’s Advance paint that’s designed especially for cabinets and shelving. That paint is probably too nice for these humble plywood shelves, but it’s supposed to dry very hard and durable so nothing will ever stick to it. It’s currently curing which I think takes around 10 days if I’m remembering correctly.

 

I managed to get a lot of the wall area underneath the shelves painted. I’ve just started going back and painting the areas where the roller couldn’t reach. I’m giving myself the day off because my arms/shoulders are very tired. It’s hard to hold and roll a paint roller laden down with thick, Drylock paint, straight out in front of you while bending over or laying on your stomach, in order to roll it out on a section of the wall underneath a shelf. I’m definitely building up my upper arm and shoulder muscles right now. lol

 

Here’s a closer view showing the Drylock paint on the walls and the Benjamin Moore Advance paint on the shelves.

 

After I finish painting the white Drylock underneath the shelves in this crawl space storage room, I plan to paint the floors with Drylock Concrete Floor paint in the color, Dover Gray. I can’t wait to finish this space because all the stuff that was originally stored in the semi-finished area (where painters are painting today) is now crammed into the unfinished side of the basement. I can’t wait to get everything organized and share the end result.

 

I just purchased this garden tool stand to go in a corner of the crawl space storage. I don’t have a lot of garden tools to store so I think it will work well for my needs. Tool stand is available here: Garden Tool Stand for Corners.

 

The painters arrived bright and early this morning to start painting the semi-finished side of the basement. They were covering the flooring when I snapped this photo. I told them that it was okay to leave it uncovered since it’s just concrete and will be getting flooring, but they said they always do that to help with cleanup and dust. So funny seeing the Christmas trees outside under the screen porch. It looks like I have trees growing right outside that door. Ha!

The paint colors I’ve chosen for the basement are Benjamin Moore White Dove for the walls and Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace for the trim. Don’t quote me on this but what I think I’ve discovered is if you want some contrast between your walls and your trim, but still want to keep a room light and bright, it seems to me that you basically go with two white paint colors, one just darker or a different hue than the other. White paint can come in so many shades, some much darker than others.

 

My mistake in the garage was thinking I had to choose a “colored” paint for the walls to get that contrast, but the color I initially chose ended up being way too dark. I ended up having to stop the painting process in order to choose another color. White Dove is one of BM’s most popular paints, as is Chantilly Lace for trim, so hopefully, (fingers crossed) I will love the finished look. I bought a sample a few days ago and tried it on poster board, but it’s really hard to tell anything from just a large piece of poster board. So much depends on the lighting in a room. In any case, I think White Dove and Chantilly Lace are “safe” choices, which is really all I want for this basement room that I doubt I will ever furnish or use.

For the flooring in this room, I am thinking of going with a Luxury Vinyl Plank flooring. I’ve read great things about LVP and apparently, it’s a popular flooring for basements. I’m dreading having to choose the color for that since it will butt up against my hardwood flooring at the top of the basement steps. We’ll see how that goes, but for now, the focus is all on paint. Looking forward to sharing some progress photos later in the week!

 

 

Looking forward to all the great Before and Afters linked for this week’s Met Monday!

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Comments

  1. This will be gorgeous, Susan. You’ve accomplished so much! Happy week, hope everything goes well with the painting.

  2. Wow, what a project, lots of hard work and I know you will be over the moon when all your things are back in place and so organized! Thank you Susan!

  3. You are off to a great start. Can’t wait to see the finished project. I know it will look amazing. You are a work horse, girl!! Wish you could bottle that energy and sell it. I’ll take 10 cases.

    • Thanks, Anne! 🙂 I can’t wait to share it with you, I’m amazed how much better it looks already…I should have done this years ago for sure.

  4. Susan,
    One of the posts today that I linked up is about my own Metamorphosis and how I lost 31 pounds so far!!
    Thanks again for hosting this charming party every week! I know how much time goes into doing so and I want you to know that it I truly appreciate it!! Stay safe, healthy and happy!!
    Hugs,
    Debbie

    • Wow, that’s awesome! I know how hard that is to do. I keep hearing about intermittent fasting, it seems to work really well for so many people.
      XXX

  5. That’s so exciting Susan – I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s done! I like the 2-white paint combination. I did notice the trees out your window and wondered how you got in and out – maybe open both doors and sneak through between them?! Now I know! 🙂 Thanks so much for hosting the party and for all your great tips and inspiration. Happy Monday!

    • Ha, ha, ha! I didn’t know they had moved those, didn’t notice they were no longer in the room, so I was surprised when I looked at the photo after downloading it. At the rate they are going, I think they’ll finish the painting tomorrow. Amazing how much they got done today! Happy Monday, hope you have an awesome week!

  6. It’s amazing how paint can transform a space! Love the nice white in the crawl space. Can’t wait to see how the paint comes out in the finished part of the basement as well as all the organizing you are doing. Loving that tool holder, just what I need! You are getting a lot done Susan! Hugs, Brenda

    • Thanks, Brenda! I know, it’s shocking what a difference some white paint can make. The tool holder arrives tomorrow I think, so I’ll share how it works real soon. I hope it will fit/work where I have in mind.

  7. Tina W Reynolds says

    What an amazing project! I know your arms and shoulders are just…well, beyond sore! This is going to look wonderful and will serve you well. I was thinking that if you ever sell your house, the next owners are the luckiest people on Earth!

    • You are not kidding! I def needed a day off to recover. I may give my arms and shoulders one more day to recover before I finish off that area under the bottom shelf. Then it will be time to cut in for the flooring paint. That’s gonna be a bit tricky again but I’m in home stretch now. I’m the horse who can see the barn door off in the distance, and it’s standing wide open! 😉

  8. Claire S Hallman says

    I wanted LVP in a room adjoining a real wood floor and found some that looks like marble. You might be able to find some that doesn’t look like wood, too.

    • Interesting! I’m amazed by all the colors it comes in. Not sure if I’ll get that done before Christmas, may have to wait until January for that. But I’m eager to get it all finished up.

  9. Mary from Virginia says

    Can’t wait to see everything put together. I hope you rest a couple of days!

  10. Once again you put me to shame lol! I’m turning into a great procrastinator these past few months. Can’t wait to see the final results because I know it will look great!

  11. It’s so bright and clean! Thinking of using LVP here too, so take us along on your journey to select one, if you do.

  12. Getting up and down to paint must be hard on you too. There will be so much satisfaction when you are finished. You keep calling the space a crawl space, but it sure looks spacious! I never thought about having two tones of white in a room. That is a great tip.

    • Thanks, Kathleen! The getting up and down isn’t really an issue, but I tell ya what, concrete floors are unforgiving on knees! Ha!
      Well, that used to be a crawl space. That concrete wall went across the bottom and there was a big, wide door that my pest control company would always open to peer inside during my yearly termite inspection. Inside, it was the earthen ground/dirt with a vapor barrier inside. It always creeped me out, peering inside, like a portal to another world. LOL
      When a contractor who was working in my home suggested having concrete poured inside and turning it into storage, I jumped on that idea. A humongous concrete truck backed into my driveway and they used a very, very, very long funnel-like thing to get the concrete from my driveway, across my entire back yard and through the door on the unfinished side of the basement over to that creepy crawl space. Then the contractor had one of his guys build the shelving inside for storage. So that’s how it went from an earthen crawl space to an actual storage room. I guess I should start calling it “the storage room.”
      I hope I like these two white colors together. I love the Chantilly Lace so far on the trim.

  13. That has really been quite the storage project. I think a mistake people make is not building shelving large or sturdy enough for real storage. This storage room will be wonderfully accessible and nice and dry! Thanks for hosting, loving the seasonal posts.

  14. Bravo to you, Susan for all your work on this project! You should be so proud of yourself and I know the final results will be greater than you anticipated! You’ve planned and researched and sought expert help, and it will all end up to have been well worth your extraordinary effort. You really are an inspiration.

  15. A question about the tool rack in the crawl space: is the crawl high enough that you can lift the longest tool straight up out of the rack, to remove it? Without hitting the insulation?

    You are going to love the storage in the crawl space. Consider adding a wheeled platform like a mechanic’s creeper to easily move things around there.

    • Ya know, I thought about that right after I ordered it. I need to go down and measure the height and the height of one of my rakes. The place I’m thinking of putting it is down on the first level (on the left) when you first step into that space. I hope it will work there since that’s a bit lower than the rest of that storage area. I can easily stand up inside the storage space and I’m around 5’4″, and the lower section is a good bit higher than that.

    • I was just thinking, a mechanic’s creeper would have great for painting the wall under the shelves! 🙂

  16. Dawnemarie says

    What a great job, Susan! Last month I pained my ceilings and trim chantilly lace. I’m a Ben Moore girl! Looks great with pashmina walls of seven years.
    Your project is looking good. Gonna be so much brighter!

    • Me, too! I really like their paints. I will say, I’ve never seen a better exterior paint than Sherwin Williams Duration. I can’t believe how well and how long it’s held up on the exterior or my home! But I do love Ben Moore’s colors and the quality of their paint! I will have to look up Pashmina and check it out!

  17. Please rest yourself thoroughly. I found out the hard way overdoing it painting when not quite so young can easily lead to rotator cuff issues!
    That being said, the basement is looking good, I like your color choices, and look forward to seeing the flooring.
    Could you either use a runner on the stairs to minimize the contrast with your hardwoods or extend the hardwoods down? A friend of ours simply used a sturdy commercial carpet with good padding on her stairs to cushion her knees going up and down. It looks intentional and blends the upper hardwoods and basement flooring. Just a thought…..

    • Thanks, Jae. I ended up having to take a couple of days off because the painters taped off the doorway at the top of the stairway which made it difficult for me to go down to the basement without having to go outside and down the back deck staircase. Plus, I wanted to stay out of their hair since they were painting the doors to the unfinished area and storing some of their equipment over there. I feel fully refreshed now for painting though and I’m about to head down and finish up the walls underneath the shelving. I hope to do the flooring in that crawl space tomorrow and then it will be done. I really like your idea of a runner that would be so pretty. Thanks for that suggestion!

  18. Susan, what a big job you just accomplished! It’s huge inspiration to get our basement storage together.

  19. Hi Susan, Love this project! We have an unfinished space we discarded furniture for storage. Not practical (wasted space) . I think I just found a January project ! Thanks for the party too! laura in Colorado

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