Mass eradication: Phase 2, Part 2.5: The Library. And possible pantry floor?

Ahhh.  You know what feels good?  A room painted black.  Yes.  It does.  You ought to try it.

Years ago in another part of Humboldt Park, I painted a bathroom semi-gloss black in my condo.  It was transcendent.  Unfortunately I don't have any photos, nor can I find any online, so you'll just have to trust me on how neat it was.  Our place in Logan Square, I tiled a bathroom in black penny tiles, up seven feet or so on the walls.  So when we bought this place, there was the obligatory question:  which bathroom will be black?  As there was no consensus, painting a room black has been floating in the ether.

Until Saturday night.  Casually to Mike, sort of in passing, under my breath a hair I said, "hey, I uh, I'm going to paint the swanky new library black."  Much to my astonishment, he said flatly, "ok."

Oh!

Ok!

The real estate staged before photo. I like how they have a lamp - there are no outlets in this room.

Back all those years ago, the "Paint Rules" poo-poo'ed painting anything black, but I do distinctly remember "The Rules" saying to never paint a room in flat black.  Pffft.  Whatever.  I'll tell ya, I wish folks would stop making up all these rules and encourage people to do what they like, do what makes them happy, what feels good.

My before photo, using a normal person lens.

As you can see, I tested out a bit of that Lemon Curd color and it was too much, not right.  Arg, I do love that color.  I have to find another place for it.  Oh, maybe the eternal basement bathroom project room!

Knowing that Home Depot carries a pre-mixed black paint by Glidden, I stopped by there.  They only carry black paint in flat though, fyi.  I hemmed, hawed, not because of the fakey "Rules" but I wasn't sure if flat was what I wanted.  I almost left (well, I did.  I walked out the exit but then went right back in the entrance -- I'm sure I looked totally ridiculous) but realized that since I'm painting the old Ikea shelves in semi-gloss, the black should not compete in finish.  So I got flat.  And I'm glad I did.  The room is starting to pan out exactly how I pictured it in my head.

The almost dry after.

This paint said it had primer in it, but yet I discovered I still have to roll on a second coat.  Kinda frustrating for a black too, but, so it is.  I opted to paint the whole vent bump out; it helps the room feel larger without a line of white stunting the flow of sheer blackness.

Almost dry, other direction.

Ahhhh.  A black room.  Makes me so joyous.  I'm tellin' ya, getting this house painted is definitely making it feel more and more like home, like ours, with every brush stroke.  It makes a huge difference, more than I can put to words.

I also stopped back by that free wood place as I was thinking about the pantry floor yet again.  I know.  One of these days I'll just pick something and be done with it.  When I was there the first time, I noticed squares of plywood that are used as separators on the pallets.  Last night I thought, huh, I wonder how that would work out as a floor.

I grabbed as many of the squares as I could find without tracking down Twitchy, which obviously wasn't very much, and lined them up on the floor.  I thought I could either glue them down, or nail them, give it all a sanding, then stain and seal. There are a lot of nails and staples buried (safely) in the wood already which is kind of interesting.

So, I'll ask Mike what he thinks.  It might be a little hard to envision where I'm going with this considering these pieces I picked up look rather rough.

It isn't always easy to stain plywood either, by the way.  Plywood absorbs stain very inconsistently and pretty badly sometimes, so prep would be key.  Stained plywood can come out looking great though too, as seen here and here and here.  Granted, my wood looks nothing like any of those woods, heh, but I think the variations in this wood above would prove very interesting when stained.

It's close to what we are going to make for our bedroom headboard (which can be seen here though we won't go as large), so I'm a little leery of the near repetition and I'm not sold as this being the winning idea.

Well anyway.  So that was my day!  Library progress and a pantry floor thought.