Tag: painting

Testing Paint Colors for the Bedroom

The walls in our home (the ones that don’t have wallpaper, that is) were all painted creamy white before the house was put on the market. It’s a good base to start with because it’s allowing us to take our time with decisions, rather than rushing to cover up horrid colors right away. I’ve been working on the kids’ rooms right away so they’ll have spaces that feel special, and I think it’s time to paint our bedroom next.

The rug that I first tried in the living room is officially staying in the bedroom. I’m liking the fir/pine wood upstairs (though it was painted once upon a time — the Victorians liked to faux-finish lesser woods to make it look like nicer wood than it really is), and the major furniture of the room is in place. Our bedding will probably be mostly white, and the neutral upholstered bed is staying as-is.

I’ve been wanting to try Sherwin-Williams’ Sea Salt forever, because it’s one of those colors that pops up over and over and looks completely different (and completely gorgeous) every time. I think it’s too light next to our wood trim though. The other color that I tested is Comfort Gray, which is one shade darker than Sea Salt. Before we moved into this house, I did tell Brandon to slap my hand away from the paint if I start trying to put gray on all the walls. But! This is more bluish!

I think it’s the winner.

October 30, 2013
Eleanor Picks Paint Colors

August gets excited when we do something different to his room. “A new blanket? For me!? WOW!!!” He’s two though, and he is not the bundle of opinions that is four-year-old Eleanor. She’s a character, but I love that she’s so into personalizing her room. She has been steadfast in her wish for dark blue walls, so I wanted to make sure she would like it by showing her some mock-ups of her room before we paint.

E was making silly faces for me the other day, when she asked me to take pictures of her wearing her new shoes. As I looked through them, I realized that they were pretty representative of her opinions on the paint colors. So here we go! Mock-ups and reactions.

First up, pink. I don’t think pink is the way to go for her new room, but we had to start with a baseline.

What do you think, Eleanor?

That’s what I expected. Here’s aqua.

This could be nice. See? It works with the light, and the bedding. How about it, E?

OK, that’s a no. All right, all right. Dark blue? Yes?

Do you like it?

Ah. I see that I have your interest.

Oh, oops, I hit the lightness slider too far to the left. That’s really dark.

Let me just fix that. Wait, what? You like it?

Of course that’s the one you go for. DARK BLUE. All right, kid. It’s your room! Let’s make it work.

October 9, 2013
A New Video Series with Painting Tips

I’m so eager to get some paint on the walls of the new house. I’m fine with taking my time to make decorating decisions, to place everything and unpack all of the boxes… but come on. I want to pick up a paint brush already! Eleanor’s room is on the docket and I’ll share her color choices later today, but first I have some how-to videos to share that might be helpful for those of you about to paint.

Lindsay Ballard of Makely Home writes for Glidden on My Colortopia (as do I), and they put together a video series of helpful painting tips. The trickiest thing, I think, is to cut in without using painter’s tape.

I’ve tried to explain a lot of this before in writing, but a video is much easier to learn from! There are tips for using painter’s tape in Lindsay’s series too, along with prepping, cleaning up, painting trim, and more. You can check out all of the videos right here, on YouTube.

I have been sponsored by Glidden® brand paint to write this post but the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

October 9, 2013
Our Vintage Bathroom

We should have done this years ago.

Our house likely had both an unfinished attic and basement when it was built in 1910, so this bathroom on the main floor (right off the kitchen) would have been the only one. All of the fixtures are original: the hex tile, pedestal bathtub, toilet, and wall-mounted sink with separate hot and cold taps.

We changed the shower curtain when we moved in, but lived with the mint-toothpaste-green wall and trim color for over six years. I didn’t love it, but it didn’t bother me enough to change it right away. I bought a new shower curtain a little while ago to change it up again, and more recently I changed the toilet seat lid from white to black. I’d been planning to paint since, oh, forever, but couldn’t decide on a color. Turns out it’s much easier to pick a color when you step out of your own weirdness about choosing just the right hue and instead just pick something neutral-ish that will complement the blue in the tile! The bathroom is charming now that it’s a soft blueish gray with crisp white trim, and I’m kicking myself for having waited so long.

Now I’ll have a sweet little bathroom that I only get to enjoy for a couple of months or so, until we sell the house and move. Stupid earlier indecisiveness.

The wall color is Keystone Gray, and the exterior of the bathtub is Onyx. The white trim is Snowbound (leftover from painting my office), and the ceiling is White Dove (the pint leftover from testing whites for the kitchen was put to good use). The wall color is similar to the color in my office, but a little more subdued, and with a little less green. Both rooms are on the main floor, so it’s nice to have some continuity in the color palette.

I always thought the bathroom was kind of cute, because I could see the potential in it. Now it’s cute in real life though — not just in my head. It’s much better this way.

June 3, 2013
One Week to Listing

(We think.)

The house is being photographed for its listing on Tuesday morning, and we should be on the market June 6th or 7th.

The kids spent the night at my mom’s house so that we could get some uninterrupted work in. Brandon put a fresh coat of paint on the front porch this morning, and I’ve been painting the bathroom on the first floor.

We need to start packing some of our stuff away to ready the house for showing, and do a few things like tidy the bookshelves, wash the windows, and weed the garden. I’d like to paint the living room too, since I think it should not be pink (even though it IS a subtle shade of pink). Brandon and the realtor think that it isn’t necessary, but I’d feel better about our house’s chances of selling having done it.

I’m off to paint the exterior of the bathtub. I think we’ll change out the light fixture in the bedroom today too, and then pack a bit more.

This is all happening very quickly.

May 30, 2013
Wood Doors, White Trim

I left the doors unpainted in the front entryway. (Thanks for your feedback.)

The door between the living room and the stairway shows its age a little (it’s original to the house, so 100+ years old), but I think it has character. We, or a future owner, could paint or refinish it someday.

And with that… hooray! All of the trim in the house has been painted — upstairs, downstairs, and in the basement! Happy dance time. I can finally cross that one off my list.

May 15, 2013