For a long time the closet in our master bedroom was an afterthought. It was functional; it held clothes. But the walls were dinged up, scuffed, and bland. I am glad I am married to Rachel who sees a boring closet and finds joy in improving it to make our home more pleasant for everyone. We recently painted our added laundry closet a very dark green and ended up with a similar hue here, but in the blue tones. (This color is behr “ink black” at 85%). Deep colors seem to make things look their best.
That is a good set up for a closet full of colorful dresses on her side and some less interesting blue dress shirts on my side.
A project like this typically takes one night, so that is fun for a Friday evening at home.
I recently got a paint sprayer from graco, and it can be a great tool for something like this. The thing about sprayers is once you tape up some plastic sheeting on any areas you want to protect, the actual painting is quick.
It is ideal for painting pieces like doors too, because an even coat is applied around the little nooks and seams. I have painted a handful of six-panel doors with brushes and rollers, and it can be difficult to end up with a smooth finish on the entire surface.
Before owning one, my main hesitation about paint sprayers was the clean up of the actual machine. How can something that has paint constantly flowing through its tubes and filters ever get un-painty?
Blast water through it is the answer!
The sprayer we have came with a little attachment that you hook up to a garden hose and connect to the same tube that feeds paint into the machine. When you are ready to clean up, you just hook up the hose, turn it on and run the pump. It is like power washing the inside of the machine, which is very satisfying.
Here is a little before and after comparison of the closet!
Reflecting on this project, it is another example of the transformative power of a simple paint job. I am usually not much help in picking colors, but thankfully we have Rachel to fill that role around here, and she picked a good one. The deep blue tone is a perfect backdrop for our clothes.
We didn’t even upgrade our hangers and still have simple white plastic ones. So the lesson of this story might be just paint your closet navy blue and do nothing else and you might be really happy with it! I appreciate how good it looks when I choose my shirt each morning!
