Sometimes you just have to throw a little Harry Belefonte out there. Especially when you’re doing a ton of sanding and the song keeps getting stuck in your head with “sand” instead of “shake” because you’re especially weird like that.
Weirdness accepted, we making more and more progress on the house and my arms are oh my God so ripped now—if by “ripped” I mean “weak and sore”. With the bedrooms painted we needed to sand down the exposed beams before sealing them. We are keeping them au natural instead of gussying them up like so many people do (so many jokes to be had about keeping things au natural). Jokes aside since my grandma reads this, before we started sanding the beams were kind of dull and had a little mold on them, which happens (it’s no big deal, there are literally mold spores everywhere). Instead of painting them which would make it almost impossible to undo, we really wanted to sand them to a bright wood tone in order to bring out the grain.
Before we dry-walled, we sanded each beam on the ends but saved the rest of the sanding until we had finished painting. In order for you to see the before and after, I sanded the closest beam below and the others are all sanded on either end but un-sanded in the middle. See how much prettier the wood is where it’s sanded?
Using rolling staging (sort of seen in the photo above) I used an orbital sander and 100 grit sandpaper. On the tougher spots I used 80 grit sandpaper to remove more material. Because we’re not staining them and because they are up high it’s almost impossible to see any marks left by an 80 grit paper from regular standing level (they’re almost impossible to see when you’re right up close to them too). I would be hesitant to sand with anything below 120 grit however if you’re going to stain, unless you do a low-grit sand paper followed by a high-grit. Sanding the sides wasn’t difficult but oh my muscles was the bottom to each of them tiring. Instead of holding the sander over my head, which is also dangerous, I found the easiest way was to almost hug the beam from the top and hold the sander. Instead of pushing from the bottom, I was pulling from the top which made it easier to hold for long periods of time. When all was said and done each beam looked light, airy and you could see the beautiful wood grain patterns in each beam.
We still have seven more beams to sand (two in the stairwell and five in the other bedroom, but we’re happy with the progress. Everything is definitely pulling together.
Since it’s somewhat obvious in the photos, we finally painted the master bedroom! While we have to admit the color is pretty, it’s so close to white that when it’s sunny in there you can’t tell it’s painted until you notice the ceiling is bright white. We really thought it was going to be a soft gray but it’s one of those colors that’s very malleable (more than most) in different lighting. In our bedroom with all the sunlight it looks like a white with a hint of beige and gray.
It’s odd that the paint on the walls looks slightly different than the paint on the chip and yet, the paint when on the chip dries to look just like the chip. Believe it or not, the first chip of the center strip above has the paint on it. The strip is clearly a gray, while in our room the walls look like a milky white.
All of that said, we’re okay with it for now. It’s definitely a pretty color but we’re planning on repainting down the line (maybe a couple years) to give it a little more saturated color. Then again, we might completely love it as is once we decorate around it! If we change, we’ll be sure to let you know. In the mean time—more sanding!
xo,
Heather
