As scheduled, our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore picked up the donation items yesterday. With the pickup and a big move of frames and accessories into the future playroom for now, the guest bedroom finally stopped feeling like a cluttered storage zone and started to look like an actual room again.

To be clear: it’s not fully ready for company yet (in-laws arrive on Thursday), but it is no longer a junk-filled space. Clearing out the room made it possible to tackle a paint job we’d been talking about for a while.

The photo taken after dark wasn’t planned for dramatic effect — once Clara was asleep we decided to use the quiet hours to get some work done. We figured painting an empty room would be faster and neater, especially since the new bed is arriving early next week. With the baby asleep, it felt like the perfect window to seal the deal and get the first coat on the walls.

By morning the room already looked noticeably different. The walls had a single coat of tinted primer that changed the whole feel of the space. The hue leaned toward a stony, pale blue with faint purple undertones in certain light. It read as a neutral that wouldn’t offend visiting guests and could even double for a baby boy’s nursery should that ever be needed down the line. It was an appealing vibe — calm, cool, and understated.

That said, we did have a little fun with the reveal: that “color” was actually just tinted primer, not the final paint. Tinted primer can look surprisingly close to finished paint, which made for an amusing moment of suspense before committing to the final color.

We chose to use tinted primer because we’re going bold with a very dark final color. Deep tones need a good base to achieve even, saturated coverage without multiple heavy coats. Tinting the primer helps reduce the number of paint coats required and improves the richness of the finish. It also helps with uniformity when covering light patches or repairs that remain visible through standard primer.

For this project we picked Olympic Premium Primer, primarily because it’s 100% VOC free and affordable — only about twelve dollars a gallon. It’s water-based, so it’s much less offensive than older oil-based products: no overpowering smell and no unpleasant cleanup. The texture is a bit thinner than oil-based primers, so it required a careful hand to avoid drips. We stopped and wiped any runs as we went, which is standard practice with water-based primers and helps keep the final finish smooth.

The plan is to use that tinted primer as the foundation for a deep, enveloping paint color that’s well outside our usual comfort zone. We’ve been curious about introducing a darker, moodier color somewhere in the house, and the guest room felt like the right place to experiment. It has two walls with windows, plus an additional window in the adjoining bathroom, so even a dark color will get enough natural light to avoid feeling cave-like.

We’re both oddly excited and a little nervous about the result — dramatic colors can be thrilling but also intimidating when you’re used to lighter palettes. For now we’ll keep the exact shade under wraps until we finish painting this weekend and can share photos. Color descriptions can be misleading, so visuals will tell the story better than words.

This is our first time working with tinted primer on such a deeply saturated finish, so we’re hopeful it will do the job. We only bought one gallon of paint for the topcoat and are crossing our fingers that the primer reduces the need for multiple heavy coats. If all goes well, the guest room will be transformed into a cozy, stylish retreat without an endless string of paint cans. Stay tuned for the final reveal once the painting is complete and the new bed is in place.