Ep. 02: Painting a Rental

Here’s a link to Design*Sponge’s previous podcast, After the Jump. There are a few episodes about decorating rental apartments, specifically about painting. She also has a new podcast, Good Company, more generally about running a creative business.

Check out all our paint color inspiration on Pinterest. We were pretty decisive on the living room color but needed to look at a lot of options for the kitchen and bathroom color. I looked at general bathrooms I liked, as well as bathrooms specifically with orange tile since that was the big hurdle we were trying to overcome. You’ll notice also that our color inspiration didn’t necessarily come from the same type of room—the living room color is shown in a bedroom, and a lot of the bathroom colors were from bedrooms and living rooms.

And here’s what we ended up with. The living room is Behr Premium Rustic Taupe. All the wall colors are eggshell finish (not the least shiny option, but close—the shinier your paint, the more imperfections you can see, and we’re not working with very smooth walls).

The kitchen and bathroom are Flagstaff Green—Donnie’s pick.

The feature wall in the bedroom is Black (scroll down to the curtain rod pic). Notice the very real difference between what displays online and what the color looks like on the wall. Always get sample pots and paint swatches! The rest of the walls in the bedroom are Malted.

All the trim and doors are the white base color in semigloss (not the shiniest finish, but close). Trim and cabinets are usually painted shinier to make them easier to clean.

We bought our new door hardware on Amazon. These come in a variety of finishes, but we chose brushed nickel, which is silver but not shiny. Notice that there are four different types of knobs. We got two passage (for the two closets) and two privacy (for the bedroom and bathroom—these lock). There are also dummy knobs (if for some reason you have a door that doesn’t open but still wants to look like a door) and entry (which locks with a keyhole that faces the exterior).

These are the hinges we bought. Don’t forget to bring an existing hinge to the store with you! Just because these fit our doors (well three out of four) doesn’t mean they’ll fit yours. Also be sure to count the number you’ll need. Some doors are held on with three hinges each. Ours only have two because ~rental~. We also bought these in brushed nickel, but they come in a variety of colors to match your hardware finish.

For those concerned about the vocab, the piece of the handle that sticks out to connect to the door frame is called a latch, and the flat piece of metal that holds the latch into the door frame is called the latch plate.

This is the painter’s tape we used. You can buy it at the paint counter at most hardware stores or on Amazon. There are also a bunch of generic brands, but kind of like Band-Aids, I feel like this is one of those scenarios where buying the name brand gives you peace of mind. It’s sticky enough to stay on while you paint but not so sticky that it pulls off the paint beneath it or leaves residue.

If you have specific questions about our painting project or stuff we forgot to cover, hit us up on Insta!

If you feel intimidated by picking a paint color, Clare has a limited number of colors and finishes that have been selected by interior designers to help you out. They also have this nifty quiz if you have no idea where to start. I haven’t used this paint, so I can’t say whether it’s worth $50 a gallon, but it’s a good jumping off point.

These are the curtains rods we got. We got the brushed aluminum finish to match our brushed nickel hardware. Notice also that there are a variety of lengths of curtain rods—measure your windows. For real. I generally think curtain rods are really ugly, so I like how low profile these are—specifically the ends of the rods that end in little caps rather than, say, huge glass orbs. My one critique of these is that in the middle of the rod, where it slides to increase and decrease in size, is a black plastic washer. So there’s basically a black line in the middle of our nice metal curtain rods. Crate and Barrel—CB2’s higher-end cousin—has very similar rods for $10 extra. I wonder if those have the same black washer or if they’re more expensive because that piece blends more seamlessly. If you have those curtain rods, let me know!

Also, that big metal grate is there because that’s the window with the fire escape. Not exactly a design choice I would have made, but safety first in the city.

And finally, our last vocab situation:

Homey means homelike. That was what we actually meant.

Homely can mean having the characteristics of home OR not elaborate/complex OR unattractive in appearance.

Comely means having a pleasing appearance and is specifically an antonym for homely. No wonder baby Jordan was confused.