Cliff May Restovation

We've all heard the old adage: Necessity is the father of invention. That's certainly true. But what everybody knows, but is reluctant to talk about is Necessity's bastard son: Getting Crap Done.

I received a wonderful call last Friday....a new prospective client. He wanted to come meet me at my home office. Some of you may remember from way back when that I had previously remodeled my office...kinda:

Unfortunately, after the 4th coat of paint nearly two years ago(yes, I used a tinted primer) I discovered I didn't really like the brown that much and I neglected the trimwork. So, to cut a long story short, I realized that I needed to do something before the new client swung by.

IMPORTANT TANGENT: Paint companies are funny. They always mention how their paint requires fewer coats, lasts longer, smells nice, cures global warming, etc. And I always believed that stuff was a bit of a crock of crap. The Behr paint at Home Depot seems to work just fine and I've always been happy with the results. It also happens to be considerably less expensive than places like Dunn Edwards. I was right! Kinda. I was right that quality paint is quality paint and $40 gallon paint doesn't possess magic qualities that somehow allow painting dark colors with one coat.

However, I was also wrong. Oh so very wrong about other things. I'm just going to come right out and say it: Behr colors suck. I've gotten maybe one color ever that I've really liked. I always thought it was something wrong with me....that I was just crappy at picking paint colors. But then I stumbled across a color guide for Dunn Edwards. They picked their favorite 18 blues and put them in their color guide. I cheated and had Home Depot "color match" Dunn Edwards "Snow Lodge." I'm shocked. It's like sky blue or robin's egg but better. I'm definitely impressed.

Anyhow, back to our scheduled programming.... I've actually learned a lot about painting (most of it wrong, I'm sure). Given the age of my house, prepping can make all the difference between a so-so paintjob and a pretty good one. I've taken up the practice of sanding the walls before painting. While this isn't the same as new drywall and texture coating, it goes a long way to improve the appearance and it's only 1/100th the work and expense.
You can see the evidence of the previous owners' crummy patch jobs. Here's the new color -- bear in mind the camera flash completely skews the hue:
I'll be sure to post more pics when I'm done. I'm thinking of attempting a custom desk of some sort. Any ideas?