Paint Sprayer Disaster Followed by Success

After I finished the ceiling tiles last week, I was very excited to get the ceilings painted. I figured this task wouldn’t be too bad considering I already own a paint sprayer that I’ve only used once over 4 years ago. Well, I should have known that merely thinking this would be an easy task would jinx me. I grabbed my Magnum X5 paint sprayer and started assembling it. I bought an extension for the gun so I wouldn’t have to stand on a ladder to paint the ceiling. I got the thing all put together, but I couldn’t get it to prime. So what’s a girl to do? You all should know this answer by now: YouTube. After watching about 3 videos on how to operate and troubleshoot the machine, I started borrowing tools from my neighbor to disassemble the dang thing. After about an hour and a half every part on the sprayer that could be disassembled and cleaned was and I finally got it to work with water.

So off I went inside the house, opened a gallon can of flat white paint and started priming. It primed just fine, but then the spray gun wouldn’t spray. After about another 45 minutes with me turning, screwing and tightening everything I could find, I managed to get paint all over myself and everything else in the vicinity excluding the ceiling. However, the spray gun did decide to work. It worked great until the paint in the can got too low and then the sprayer would stop. I managed to get myself covered in paint splatter while trying to get it going time after time, but the good news is I was able to paint the ceilings in all the open spaces in record time.

The flat white paint on the ceilings tiles really adds a nice look to the room, and despite all the trouble I had with the spray gun, it was still worth it not having to roll the ceiling while standing on a ladder. It literally took me about an hour to paint the three rooms. Well, minus the two+ hours trying to get the stupid thing to work. You can tell in the picture I was pissed. Ha!

After I finished the ceiling, I started on with the lighter of the two grey colors on the walls. I used a roller to do the walls, as I wasn’t comfortable trying to spray the walls and not ruin the pretty white ceilings. And I was being lazy and not wanting to tape off everything. It was much faster to roll especially using the Wagner 9 in. Smart Roller with Manual Ratchet Trigger. Seriously this is the best invention ever. Just fill the tube with paint and start rolling, pulling the trigger to get more paint on the roller until it runs out. Then just refill it and keep going. It’s clean and easy and fast and only cost $25. The sprayer was just fast. Nothing clean, easy or inexpensive about that. Below are the results of my labor. You get a good picture of the ceiling too. Initially I thought the grey might be too dark, but it grew on me, and I like it.

I’m going to start making some more before and after collages, but here’s one that sort of shows what things looked liked before and the after. The top pictures has the ugly pink/tan walls with the drywall strips, and the horrendous popcorn ceiling and brown carpet.

Speaking of ugly brown carpet, my next project is to install the vinyl wood like floors this week. I’ll get on that right after I finish up the dark grey accent walls. There are two that need a quick coat of paint, then on to the floors. Stay tuned and wish me luck.

Comments

  1. Alisa Cooper

    Thanks, MJ. Hopefully we’ll be able to enjoy it soon, and you can come see it in person.

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