I thought by now I would have at least ten thousand photos of our Christmas shananigans with two hooligans named Will & Weston up. Apparently this Apple learning curve is no joke. So while I sort through all those photos and try to retrain my brain on all things computer, allow me to put up a post that is a long time coming. This is probably gonna get some of you shouting BORING! (especially since we are already at the midway point of painting. Can you believe that we are at the half-way point of painting the rooms on the first and second floor?!)…but this is the post about all things PAINT!
Yup, if you were one of the hundreds of people that ever asked me…what color is _______? (fill in that blank with a room name) then this is the post for you and your paint-chip-obsessed brain.
Here are all the paint colors that I have color matched so far as well as the color scheme that we have already been working toward in this house.
First up…the old paint colors…
The living room and the foyer as well as the stairway to the upstairs hall and the ‘adult bedrooms’ have all remained untouched. Mostly because of a height issue. All of the ceilings match the trimwork (which as you can plainly see on your color-enhanced monitors) is not white. Not even close to white. So that means all the trim and all the ceilings need painting. Not a problem if you don’t mind being hoisted or situated 20 feet in the air. I do. I have a problem with that.
I’ll have you know that we got a quote on painting just the ceilings and trimwork in the foyer and the living room (just two rooms) because those are the ones that are two story high and it came in over $3K. That’s about when Jer and I looked at each other and said ”I guess we are renting scaffolding.”
I have not been hiding the fact that I do not like the Cucumber Peel color, especially next to the non-white-trim…but the last color (which is very close to the swatch listed above but not a perfect match) is not one that bothers me. If only the previous owners left me a bucket or two of paint! ::shakesfistsatuniverse::
Jekyll Grand Dining Sea Mist (that’s no joke…that’s the real name) lived in the guest bedroom, the old kitchen, the reading room and the master. And yes…it looks different in each room.
Moving on to our outside colors…
I did not list the previous exterior colors…but if you are interested in those…go outside, pick up a dog turd and have them color match it at your local home improvement store. It’s that color.
The new trim on the front as well as the columns are all Pavestone at 100%. The front doors are Onyx black but frankly, I have been fighting the urge to paint them a fun green or navy color.
On the back of the house, the darker color is Pavestone at 200% (the Sherwin Williams can lighten it or darken it for you)…
The basement is a long way from being close to done…but we did the best we could to make it as neutral as possible as quickly as possible (when my sister got married in our backyard, we revved the engines to make this area suitable.
Now comes the doozie…the one long LONG list of colors in our house so far that we have used. I don’t know what is wrong with us (ahem me)…picking so many neutrals that are closer than conjoined turtles (google that one…it’s crazy).
We definitely have a very neutral base going on with grays like Metropolitan in the kitchen, bathroom and nursery….
and then also with the darker, moodier Secret in the dining room…
Then we have a bunch of turquoise-y blues…like Palladian Blue in the office (I would love to repaint our bedroom this color!)…
a shade darker with the Kerry Blue Terrier in the laundry right next door…
And then this baby blue in the boys potty/tub bathroom. I think this is due for a makeover at some point…just saying.
Oh and don’t get me started on the beiges/taupes/tans…Martha Stewart Sisal in Will’s room…
Marble Tile in the office bathroom…
And Stingray in the hall. I think in the end, we will probably repaint all the beige-y colors to Stingray and just stick to one color. one can of paint. Thank you and amen.
But as we are simplifying the overabundance of beiges…I would also like to show ya the overall dream…the PAINT COLOR wishlist if you will….
The top row would be the paint colors that really are more walls and rooms throughout the house and the bottom row would be more accent colors (a feature wall! a painted vanity! a rug/accessory/bedding/furniture!). Already we have most of these colors in the rooms…it’s just a matter of simplifying so that you can see those colors with all the mess. And that isn’t to say that smaller accent colors will be used too…like the bold bright true red in the office or the guest bedroom. It’s all a matter of finishing spaces and trying to make everything work together for the good of the house.
Plus, the good thing about this color scheme thing is that most of these colors have already been used in the house (only the orange rust color and the navy have yet to be used when it comes to painting) so I feel very comfortable knowing that the hard part (picking the right beige) is over for us. May the scaffolding begin.
No, not really. I need a couple months to work up to that 
Before I recap our entire Christmas experience (you know…for posterity sake and because goshdarnit my kids are cute), I wanted to show you our latest accomplishment. I wish I could say that Santa brought this to us on the night of the 25th but the truth is…it took us almost two weeks to finish. Yes. Two weeks to paint what amounts to one room. I’m not complaining. This one little space has literally changed my life. No exaggeration.
Let me explain. This spot is what I call the mudroom. It’s the door from the garage to the house…connecting the laundry room, office, guest bathroom and kitchen. It’s the first thing I see most days and where I spend a lot of time (hello potty time and laundry is my life these days). I didn’t think this makeover would affect my feelings about our house like it has. It’s sort of huge for me. I think it’s because it’s the first thing I see most of the time when I enter the house. It’s the first place I look. It’s like the eyes of our house. And we all know the eyes are the nipples of the face (name that movie)….therefore making this room the nipples of my house.
So way back in the day, I took this space and started adding a few things to the walls here and there. I put up a dresser and a mirror and a little tiny pig rack. Then I redid the dresser (blogged about that here) and actually took a bit of paint (leftover from our exterior paint testing) and put that on the walls. But it wasn’t ever enough. It was failing in the function category and in the ‘finished’ category. The trim was still tan-ish, the painted walls only were one coat and half way up the adjoining hall. Even my three little piggies were commonly overloaded with bags, coats, etc. In fact…that pig rack was what started it all.
Jeremy would come in the door almost every day yelling about the pig rack and how it was too small and not properly secured to the wall. In my defense, it was being held in place with TWO 100lb hooks…but apparently he thought that even 200lbs was sometimes hanging on the three little pegs. And that dresser? Total dumping ground.
My issue was that the little mud room area was painted but the hall was not. So we had a warm tan trim going on with our cool greenish walls and then some brownish tan painted walls. It was weird.
And to give you a little perspective…this is how it compares to white trim…which is what is in the still unfinished laundry room.
Totes cray cray.
So over our holiday break, Jeremy wiped down all the trim with deglosser, I sanded out some damaged areas and we did one coat of primer on all the trim and three coats of paint, we painted the ceiling three times and did two coats on the walls.
Here is how that white trim stands out against the previous cream color (the garage door stayed untouched because I think I am gonna do it in a fun color).
I get the question a lot – HOW DO YOU PICK OUT PAINT COLORS?
And here is my current answer…I go through a bazillion swatches and then pick out two. Then I google pictures of them. The internet is a wonderful place. This time around, I went with my old standby which I used in our old house…Olympic’s Dusty Trail and a new pick…Benjamin Moore’s Stingray.
In the end, I liked the Stingray more with the kitchen color.
I also decided to tackle the problem of the pig rack by just picking up some new heavy-duty metal racks when we were in Chattanooga. I told y’all that we did a little last minute shopping, remember? While we were at one of my favorite stores in Chatty, Southeastern Salvage, I grabbed two of these metal coat racks. They were $15 each – which I felt was really fair considering that each hook could cost me about $3 a piece in the hardware store (totally fair considering that Ballard Designs has a spot-on twin for $69). Plus, Jer loves the industrial (ahem sturdy!) vibe.
We installed them one evening and let me tell you…I don’t know how I lived without ten hooks before.
I also threw up some picture frames (still needing some cute photos!!! get on that Katie!) but just check out the difference…
Obviously there is still some touching up to be done…
- patch and repaint the walls where old holes were
- touch up the picture frames
- paint the heads of the screws that we used to hang the racks (Jer insisted on certain anchors that used specific screws)
But overall….HOLY NIPPLES OF THE HOUSE BATMAN.
And now cue the dramatic music…we have befores and afters…
And just check out that difference to the laundry room…see how the trim looks so much cleaner and really influences it into a totally different space?
That little space right next to the laundry room is where I want to put a door with sliding barn hardware. Hopefully that way it won’t creep into my laundry space and still be a great way to hide the mess when the dirty clothes get out of control.
So that is officially is our first makeover of the 2014. Not too shabby…you know, for a life-changing kinda change.
