Old, Ugly 1980s Brown Trim: I’m Comin’ for You (+ an awesome giveaway!)

Let’s talk about trim and doors and windows and the near meltdown I almost had right in the middle of my kitchen last Tuesday night.

Melt. Down.

For whatever reason, I woke up Tuesday feeling extra motivated to finish painting the kitchen trim. Painting just one side of it two weeks ago seemed like a great idea because I have absolutely no idea.

Let me back up. Have I mentioned that project “paint 2,500+ sq. ft. of brown trim, doorways, and windows” is officially underway? Yep. We’re doing it. Psyched.

So before the aforementioned meltdown, I devoted both of Hadley’s naptimes to a small area of trim and the doorway that connects our kitchen to the laundry area/half bath/mudroom/door to basement. Follow that?

Here’s a picture of said area when we moved in three months ago. See the area with the trash bag hanging on the door? That’s the area we’re talking about here.

The painting part was easy as usual. Did a little bit of taping/prep work, slapped on a coat of primer, two coats of pure white satin paint, and let it all dry. I pealed back the tape, filled in a few areas of trim with caulk, and breathed a big sigh of relief. It looked awesome, and I was feeling pretty darn satisfied with my day’s worth of work. Couldn’t wait to show Jamie.

A few hours after I’d cleaned up, I went to shut the door (the new white six-panel door that our handyman replaced a couple weeks ago) to see how it all looked with the door closed.

And just like that, I was deflated. The door wouldn’t shut. Not even close. Did the door magicly expand an inch in width?! What is going on?!

After making a few phone calls, inspecting the newly-painted doorframe top to bottom, and coming up with nothing, I called my sister and told her to come over. She immediately smirked and reminded me that she’d warned me of this issue months ago when I originally decided to paint the trim. The new layers of painted had added just enough thickness to the frame that now the door doesn’t shut. Whoop.

After sanding a few areas on both sides of the frame and destroying my freshly-painted doorway, we got the door to close. It’s squeaking a bit because it’s still not a perfect fit, but it’s closing.

So now I have a doorframe that looks like it’s been through war and a door that needs a little bit of re-configuring.

My handyman is coming back on Thursday to finish installing the rest of the white six-panel doors, and last week’s issue has lit a major fire under me to get every single doorframe in this house painted before we say goodbye to our handyman in a few days. I want to make sure every door fits perfectly inside the painted doorframe so that the man with the tools and knowledge to fix it can do so.

Learning as we go, folks. Learning as we go.

I do love the way the white trim and white door brightens up and updates the space. Worth the meltdown, and if I’m looking at the bright side, I’m thankful to own this home and be learning about how to take care of our own place while we’re young. No knowledge is wasted knowledge, right? Okay, I’m reaching here…

Here’s a few more before and after pictures of how the white frames and doors are brightening up things around here.

Our upstairs hallway before (sorry for the awesome picture):

Currently:

Our entry way before:

Currently:

And because you’ve made it to the end of this post, I have a little giveaway for ya! A few weeks ago, I received a free copy of the brand new book The Medal of Honor published by Zenith Press to give to my husband, and he was so excited when he got home from work and saw it sitting on the counter! He made a beeline straight for it before he even put his bags down.

I have to admit that after reading a chunk of it and browsing through story after story, it’s a really, really impressive read. It’s a hardback, nearly 300 page book filled with detailed stories and pictures of those who have received the Medal of Honor.

Zenith Press was also kind enough to send me a second copy to gift to one Whimsical September reader if I wanted to (which I obviously do because it’s great!). This book would make an awesome Christmas gift for a veteran or anyone in your life who appreciates our military and its history. I can’t imagine someone with a military background and/or interest not absolutely loving this book!

It retails at $40 and just hit the shelves on October 1st, so you’d be one of the first to snag a copy! All you have to do to enter is “like” the Whimsical September facebook page using the rafflecopter below. If you’re already a fan, make sure you hit that you’ve already liked the page. This giveaway ends Friday at midnight. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway