March 8, 2011

During Part 3: BIG CHANGES!!!

Unbelieveably this is my FOURTH post in two days! I guess I'm on a roll. Actually, the kids have been playing really well--Jack is building and rebuilding forts, Ali Grace is taking her baby to the doctor for a shot, and Kate is taking a nap--so I'm using the time I have to get this done while I'm excited about it.

Let me say a little bit about paint here: IT IS HARD TO PICK!!! Seriously, I've always thought of myself as pretty decisive (Brian is rolling his eyes and laughing at me right now) at least when it comes to design choices. I just knew that I'd be the type to pick out all of the colors in one fail swoop, hand them over to Brian way before he needed them, and move on. BUT NO! I did find great colors, got samples, painted squares of posterboard, and brought them to the house on closing day fully prepared to love them and that would be it. BUT they all looked awful and my confidence in picking paint colors was shattered! SO dramatic and tramatic I know!

So I picked myself up off the floor and started over. What really helped was that I found the paint colors that several of the bloggers I love used in their homes, looked at their pictures, and then did a google images search of those colors and some similar. I was looking for a gray/blue/little bit green color and shades similar to that for most of the house and one blogger in particular (nester.com) had those very colors in her house!!! So I went to Sherwin-Williams to find the colors she had, and lo and behold they were perfect! So that's the long story of how I finally found my colors. Look online and then find the swatches in the stores--that's my new method.

So then two weekends ago Brian stayed in Starkville to get the house painted, and thanks to his hard work and the help of our great friends--Thanks Butch, Danny, Kane, and Hayden!!!--he got it all done in about 2 1/2 days! WOW! I LOVE LOVE LOVE all of the colors!



The kitchen color is Sea Salt by Sherwin-Williams. It is the lightest color we used, and it is just what I wanted--something airy and bright, but not too baby blue.


The cabinet/trim/door color in the whole house is Gypsum by Olympic at Lowes. I wanted a creamy white without too much yellow, and Brian said the paint mixer put verrry little tint in it--he had to check that it even mixed right because it looked so similar to the base color. It looks so clean and fresh to me! I absolutely adore white kitchens and I'm so excited about having one!



Brian really wanted a dark gray for the living room, but all of my previous choices were way too blue (I was still sorta trying for a gray-blue) but once I just went all gray and found this color it looked much better. The color is Gray Matters by SW. I love the contrast of the gray and white, especially with the fireplace which looks 100000000% better!


Here's another wall. I was scared that the gray would be too dark, but once we get all of our furniture in here I think it will look great!
By the way, we're going to use this room as the living room and dining room. The back part in front of the fireplace will have our new white slipcovered sofa, TV, and eventually 2 chairs, while the front of the room under the chandelier will be the dining area.



The "front room" as we've been calling this is going to be our playroom/craft room/homeschooling room. I want to have some shelving for storage, a craft table, a huge chalkboard, a small sofa, and a children's table in here. I'm super excited about this room!!! I've always wanted a devoted craft/school room!
The color in here is one shade darker than the kitchen color, it's Comfort Gray by SW.
In the middle of the room you can see our new dining room chairs--we got a GRRREAT deal on these babies! They are wood country style with upholstered seats and used to be at the Walt Disney World Carribean Resort. We found them on Craigslist for $25 each! SCORE! We're going to paint them white.



The hall is the same gray as the living/dining room.


Jack's room was a little shocking for me--a little bright. :) But I'm rolling with it and I have plans for it that might help a little. The color is Acapulco Cliffs by Olympic.


The girls' room is a light pink called Irish Lace by Olympic. Very subtle and sweet.


Our Master bedroom color is the darkest shade we used on the same swatch as the kitchen and playroom colors called Oyster Bay by SW.



And this, my friends, is the brand-spanking new tile floor in the kitchen! Brian and Butch tiled it Friday night. Butch stuck it out until almost midnight, and Brian finished at around dawn Saturday morning. We chose a really dark charcoal color with some copper, blue and green accents in it. It looks incredible!

That is what the house looks like as of today. I am blown away by the progress that Brian has made in such a short time! (We closed on January 21, and today, March 8, we are almost done!!!!) All that is left to do is install laminate wood floors in the rest of the house, do some tiling, and replace things like faucets and blinds. Then we can move in!!!! I CAN'T WAIT!

Thanks for sticking with me through these crazy long posts! I'm just so excited and want to document each step of this awesome tranformation and all of Brian's great work!



No comments: