Living Room Project Expansion

Ok, I've been a bad blogger.  Sorry for not posting - hope you can forgive me!  I've been busy with what seems like everything under the sun.  The past two weeks have been full of projects for school, fitting in some extra work at home, a little DIYing, and some housework thrown in here and there.  I have to say that I didn't even do a particularly good job with any of it.  Well, I do actually think my video for class kicked butt, but who asked me?!  

Anyways, the living room is still at a stand still.  I am waiting for my wonderful, amazing, good-lookin' hubby (are you reading this, honey?) to finish patching the hole in the ceiling.  It's almost done.  But around here, that sometimes doesn't mean a thing.  Know what I'm talking about?  Really, it's something I could finish myself - all it needs is a little more sanding and then to paint the entire ceiling.  I can do it.  It's just that I don't want to!  Once you get to know me, you'll see that I have this thing about sanding.  I hate it!  I don't mind the hand sander too much but I still avoid it if I can.  

So once I get my darling husband to finish up that small project, we'll be ready to move along.  We're doing a 1..2 combo with the living room and dining room.  It seems that everyone is doing board and batten - just check Pinterest and many of the great blogs I read.  I wanted to do it in my dining room too.  But after careful consideration (and I mean careful - I even taped out the entire design on the walls, using up my precious painter's tape) I decided that full-on board and batten wasn't for us.  Well, at least not for this house.  Nothing is level here, so installing it and making it actually stay on the walls would be a nightmare.

But I still wanted to look.  I just knew it would finish the space, giving it more architectural detail and making the room feel more cohesive (there are lots of doors and windows in there).  

So what's a girl to do?  I decided on a picture rail.  Yep, that should be manageable.  

Last night, I was finally able to get Brett to go to Lowe's with me to pick up the wood for the job.  This was after nonchalantly bringing it up a few hundred times and wandering over to the wood aisle during a trip to Home Depot.  Once he was comfortable with the idea, we were ready to go.  I had already marked off the walls and painted the bottom section semi-gloss white (to mimic woodwork). Oh, I should also mention that I want to try to do the picture rail thing by myself.  I want to get started right now but I'm afraid to work with the saw when Brett's not here... just in case.  I'm not sure how well this will work though because I tend to get impatient after a little while and end up "getting it up there" the fastest I can.  What's that you say?  It looks bad?  You're right, my rush jobs usually end up looking pretty shoddy.  That's why I'm telling myself to go slow, take my time, and above all, do it right.  Wish me luck!

So you may be asking what this has to do with holding up the living room redo.  See, since we're adding the picture rail to the dining room, we want to paint it and the existing woodwork white.  It will be lighter, brighter, more modern, and match the kitchen and upstairs woodwork.  And since we're doing the dining room, we thought we should do the living room too.  The rooms are very much open to each other, so it makes sense to do the same thing for both.

Now I know that painting woodwork creates a lot of controversy.  Believe me, I get it.  We do actually have nice moldings but they do need sanded and re-stained anyway.  I have always loved white woodwork though.  I grew up with it and am more comfortable with it.  It's also easier to choose paint colors.  Sidenote - the color we just painted the living room actually makes the woodwork look amazing.  Oh, the irony!  We have been going back and forth deciding whether to take the plunge.  We're going for it!

I didn't see the need to get the house super dusty several times by sanding and painting the rooms separately, so I've been waiting until we were ready to do both rooms together.  We're ready!  In fact, I've got to get off this computer now so I can shower, um, I mean start sanding the woodwork.  Wish me luck... I'll be pretending that I'm on the beach or running on the treadmill (wait, that's not fun) so that I don't notice that I'm sanding.

I also hope to spend some time convincing my mom to make making a slipcover for a wingback chair in the living room.  Once these jobs are done... voila... living room reveal!  

Do you have any projects that should be easy but are taking forever?  What are your experiences painting woodwork?  Have you made a slipcover?  Any tips for beginners like me?