This weekend we decided to re-paint our studio’s wall from eggshell white to red red wine.  We’ve always had the idea of repainting the studio since we got it since we didn’t like the default Eggshell White wall color.  This weekend we finally got some time to work on it.  Choosing the color of the paint was really important since with a bright colored paint would bounce light back to the subject.  We chose to go for a dark color to help absorb the light as well as keep it from bouncing too much.

We narrowed our choices to two dark colors to chose from:  a very dark blue and a dark red color.  We debated on it some more and finally chose a red color to paint the wall.  We drove to Home Depot to look at the variety of Behr paint and chose the Red Red Wine swatch.  Red Red Wine is like a crimson red but a shade darker.  We purchased a gallon of white primer, a gallon of Red Red Wine paint, and painting materials that morning.

Here’s the process that we went through over the weekend:

1.  On Saturday we cleaned the wall, laid the plastic drop cover, and put on painter’s tape around the moulding and borders of the room.  At this point the wall is still the eggshell white color.  Carefully taping and laying out the tarp took about an hour.

2.  After taping and laying out the drop cover, Crystal and I went ahead and put on the first layer of white primer.  The white primer helped to get the surface ready and to cover up the old paint.  Crystal used the roller and I used the brush to reach the top of wall and also get the hard to reach surfaces like the borders and edges.  This process took about an hour and a half; it also took 2 hours to dry.

3.  We then applied the gray primer required reach the dark red shade of the paint.  This took about an hour to apply and took close to 4 hours to dry completely.

4.  Finally after waiting for the gray primer to completely dry, we then applied the first coat of Red Red Wine paint onto the walls.  When we applied the paint on the wall it appeared very bright almost to a pink color while wet, but after settling and started to dry it started to get darker and darker.   The Red Red Wine took about an hour and a half to put on and 6 hours to dry and set. On Sunday the following morning, we went back in the studio and painted a second coat which helped the dark red color to come out and evened out the paint.  That took about an hour to do and another 6 hours to dry.

So that was our busy weekend!  We are very happy with the color we chose and the room looks more lively than before.  The red really brings out the room and gives it more dimension.  The white trimming we left actually matches with the red and now we can use the wall as a background for our photo shoots especially those requiring a wider shot.  We’ll be working on finishing touches and going over the missed spots.

Our plans are to purchase contemporary frames that are black in color that would really go well with the wall and hang our best photos taken since we started.  Then sometime in the future get ourselves a large LCD tv which we can mount on the wall and allow for our clients to preview their photos as well as for us to watch some TV   That is the goal and painting the wall was definitely one to check off the list.  I hope you all like the new color of the studio!  Give us some feedback on what you think!