When we moved into our home (Dec 2012) there was one room. The previous owners had put plaster on the walls to provide texture and then they painted it red and black. The problem was they must have painted over wet plaster because the paint underneath was peeling. And it wasn't an easy peel.
These are the before pictures. It had to go, sorry Sooner fans.
I started the painful process of sanding. It took forever. As much as I love to sand, it just wasn't getting the job done so I changed to a small scraper (the bigger metal scrapers didn't work). Literally, I spent 40 hours painfully scraping all of the plaster and the red, black, and purple (there were more colors underneath!) out of the room. I uncovered graffiti from a small artist and where they had once had a roof leak (on my to-do-list).
Look at all the peelings on the floor! See the purple!?
Then the next part was to use a Kilz primer and prime the entire room thanks to an awesome contest I won from Kilz I was able to transform my room back to 'white'. I was able to eliminate all of the artists 'tags' and start back to a fresh start.
Kilz did a great job of covering up everything else that I left behind! Please visit their Facebook Page!
Like them and buy their product.... it really does hide SO MUCH! Especially black and red paint...
I then taped the room to get it ready for paint with primer. I want to show how I tape corners. I think it must be the OCD in me that allows this kind of behavior to not only happen but to blog about taping corners! LOL...
I start with the top and curl around the edge, making sure it is exactly in position.
I fold in the top part and putting a crease in the tape, sort of like if you were folding a package for a present.
I then wrap the other side over, which forms a perfect taped corner.
I then taped everything that I wanted to stay white.
Then I applied the dark color and let dry 24 hours.
The result is a guest room which might appear dark color but after I accent with brown and yellow, will cheer it up a bit.