Painting the interior walls/ceilings of casa de la hermosa is now underway, with the Primary Bedroom, Guest Bedroom, and Casita closets completed so far.

These three spaces happen to be the first of what will ultimately be seven spaces fitted out with our favorite closet storage system – Elfa Classic. The Primary Bedroom and Casita closets were bare walls – no shelves whatsoever – while the Guest Bedroom closet had the original shelves, rods, and doors from when the house was built in the early 1980’s – yikes! Before we moved in, I spent a couple of weekends preparing these closets for fresh paint so we could install the Elfa closet systems right away, and steadily chipped away at the rest of the interior from early June through early December – a full six months!

We are huge Dunn-Edwards fans, so we’ll be using their paint for both the interior and exterior painting projects. Most of the interior will be DEW379, (a.k.a “Igloo”), though the Primary Bedroom walls will be DEC766, (a.k.a. “Steveareno Beige”). We are using Everest, opting for a flat finish for the walls and ceilings, and a “velvet” finish for the baseboards and interior doors.

The exterior painting project won’t happen until after the doors and windows have all been replaced – and we’ve been told by our supplier that it’s about a six-month wait for our order, can you believe it?! The stucco will be DET692 (a.k.a. “Kiln Dried”), the trim will be DET680 (a.k.a. “Chocolate Macchiato”), and the clay tile found on the north, south and east elevations is best represented by DET444, (a.k.a. “Happy Trails). We are using Evershield, opting for a “velvet” finish for the stucco surfaces, and a “eggshell” finish for the trim.

…and the existing stucco color? We color-matched using a piece of stucco that had flaked off the wall – and, it was an exact match to DET648, (a.k.a. “White Picket Fence”).

With retail prices hovering between $65 and $70 a gallon, I knew I needed to figure out how much paint I needed, plus-or-minus a gallon for each of the color and finish combinations we’d use, (five in all). We collected the measurements, taking windows and doors into account, then compared the amount of paint used for the three spaces I’ve completed so far to the manufacturer’s coverage figure. Wow, we were within 5%, hovering just below 400 square feet per gallon in terms of actual coverage! With those figures in hand, it was time to build a spreadsheet…

We captured the gross square footage, per wall, (or ceiling), then took the “gaps” into account to come up with a net square footage figure for each space. Those gaps could be doors, windows, cabinets, skylights, etc., and believe me, they add up! The final version of the spreadsheet is 3 pages long, and it details each wall, (or ceiling), for twenty-one separate spaces, from the Garage, (1,044 square feet, net), to the Casita closet, (102 square feet, net).

With 8.500+/- square feet of interior wall/ceiling surfaces to paint, and assuming 2 coats, we’ll need ~45 gallons, leaving a gallon or two for touch-up. Similarly, with 6,250+/- square feet of exterior stucco surfaces to paint, again assuming 2 coats, we’ll need ~30 gallons to do the job, though there wouldn’t be much left for touch-up, so we may add a gallon or two, just so we’re assured of a color match for that eventual touch-up project. The baseboards and interior doors will consume between 3-4 gallons, and the 1,350+/- square feet of exterior trim will consume 5-6 gallons of paint, again assuming 2 coats.