Ben & Me #DIYWithBen

When my husband and I moved into our house, it was 11 years ago and we were newly married. Life was sweet and we eagerly got started on our master bedroom. We picked a gold colour that looked bright and sunny during the day and soft and golden during the evening and painted the room as a team. It was an exciting time and we enjoyed transforming each room in our new home, to make it ‘ours’.

Fast forward to today and that same yellow paint is still on our walls, even though the bedding and the furniture made some major upgrades a couple of years ago. We had planned on painting, but life and laziness got in the way as it usually does, and the yellow and grey actually looked okay together. Still, sharing our home with three little boys makes for some chipped and dirty walls, and our master bedroom needed some freshing up. This time our team included Ben!

ben & ME

This Fall Benjamin Moore has a great promotion on for a do it yourself ben & ME kit that comes with everything you need to transform one of your outdated rooms! The ben & ME kit is on for only $109*, but has a value of $169! ( available until Oct 5, 2014)

The ben & ME bag contains the following items:

• 2 gallons of premium paint with 1 quart for trim
• Sleeve roller, paintbrush, paint tray, drop cloth, paint can opener and green painters tape
• How-To Guide and even a playlist to keep you on a roll!

Now that we had all of our tools, it was time to pick a paint colour! Since we already had new grey bedding and curtains, I worried that grey walls would be bland and just too much grey. I consulted with some friends who thought the monochromatic grey would actually make a nice choice so Hubs and I picked out a light, soft grey called Sidewalk Gray.

#DIYwithBen Tip 1 – Wait!! Stop!! Put down the brush! I know you’re excited to get started, but pick up the camera first and snap yourself a BEFORE pic! It will be really fun to look back on the before and after shots when the room is complete!

We started with the trim and used a nice bright white, that cleaned up our tired off-white baseboards and doors, it actually created quite the impact since the room has two windows and three doors and it freshened the room right up! Two coats were required and even a third go around to touch up some spots. Now it was time to see the walls come to life!

Keep motivated by cranking up some of your favourite tunes to rock out to, it will help the time tick away faster! Ben brought along his own play list for us, check out songza.com/benandme for some fun tunes to keep you on a roll!

#DIYwithBen Tip 2- Bust the Fuzz on a new roller so those little fibers don’t end up on your wall. Try using a lint brush or you can even just wrap your painting tape around the roller for the same effect

Ready for the Big Reveal?? Take a peek at our Before and After Shots! 

 You can see how the bright white trim looks so much cleaner and make the colour pop in the next set of pictures

Instead of yellow walls, we are bringing in shade of a deeper golden hue with accent pillows and soon artwork and accessories! My mind is buzzing with some fun DIY art work pieces for either side of the tv

#DIYwithBen Tip 3- Need a break or just waiting for coats to dry? Don’t let your brush or roller dry out. Wrap them up in a plastic bag and pop them into the refrigerator until you are ready to get back at it.

I find the Sidewalk Gray to me a more sophisticated and calming colour for our grown up bedroom and I’m really loving it! It’s amazing how a simple can of paint can transform a room! It was a fun trip down memory lane for me as we painted over that golden hue, it made me realize how far we’ve come over the last 11 years and how sometimes we need to find those starry eyed 20-something year olds inside of us again. 

Do you have an outdated or overlooked room you’ve been putting off redoing? 

Although this post has been generously sponsored by Benjamin Moore, the opinions and language are all my own, and in no way do they reflect Benjamin Moore.