One Room Challenge Week 2: Prepping To Paint | The Rural Legend
top of page
  • Writer's pictureThe Rural Legend

One Room Challenge Week 2: Prepping To Paint

Last week, I shared our plans for our big 8 week basement makeover with One Room Challenge. You can read all about it here! One of the biggest parts of this makeover is going to be painting the space. I'm SO excited to see the power of paint completely transform the room! Before painting, we need to make sure everything is prepped including adding trim to our "built out" bookcase. I mentioned last week that I was so excited about building this bookcase, but I never felt like our vision came to fruition. It has just felt unfinished.


this post contains affiliate links


built in bookshelf in basement


Adding trim to the corners, sides, and top adds depth and dimension, making it look much more polished and custom. We have a lot of 3 1/2 inch primed fiber board left over from our first floor trim overhaul, so for this project we didn't spend any money at all!


adding trim to a bookshelf to make it look high end

After Tim installed the trim with a pneumatic brad nailer, I filled all of the nail holes with paintable wood putty. I then used an orbital sander to sand off the excess dried putty. The last part of this project was caulking all of the seams between the trim and the drywall. Tim and I have a pretty quick system where he applies the caulk and I follow behind to spread and smooth the caulk.


using a caulk gun

I also spent time making sure all nail holes and blemishes on our walls were patched and sanded, so we will be ready to go when our paint is delivered! This is my absolute favorite for small wall holes! And DAP paintable wood putty is my favorite for wood. It's fills holes quickly and sands very easily.


finished basement family room, built in bookcase with wall sconces in gold.

I've got one last update for what we've been working on this week. Opposite this built-out bookcase are 3 store-bought cabinets that store Jackson's art supplies and extra home décor. These cabinets are very well-made and budget friendly, but I knew we could find a way to make them look LUXE!


store-bought laundry cabinetry in a finished basement

We're working on making them look like custom built-ins so they blend into the wall and look like they were built specifically for this space. So far, we removed the cabinet legs and built a platform to raise the cabinets and allow baseboard trim to be installed below them.



building a base to raise cabinets for a custom built in cabinet.

Just having them on this unfinished platform already makes them look MUCH better!


3 cabinets sitting on a hand built base for custom cabinetry


Once our paint arrives, these cabinets will be painted to match the blue color of the walls! We'll be using our tutorial for how to paint laminate furniture! Stay tuned to see the rest of that transformation along with the rest of the space!!!


xoxo, L




1 comment

Recent Posts

See All
bottom of page