A Fresh Coat of Paint

Okay... I'm finally getting around to the finale to my Thanksgiving posts (sorry it's taken so long). Mom had promised to help paint while she and Dad were in town, so we definitely held her to her word and picked up four gallons of paint. Rooms to paint: main living room on into hallway, accent wall in kitchen, and half bath as well as some trim work (bathroom doors, windows, etc.).

In terms of choosing the colors, I knew I wanted to do two different colors in the living room, and I really thought a chocolate brown would work well combined with a lighter brown. I also wanted the living room wall color to coordinate with the accent wall in the kitchen since the two colors would meet one another at the doorway. At Lowe's I stocked up on a huge assortment of paint chips until I discovered Valspar's Martha Stewart collection. And I really have to give Martha a hand here-- she (well, her company) definitely knows how to do it. Her paint chips came with three coordinating colors, so I picked out a couple of colors that I liked and was able to see quickly which combinations would work (definitely saved some time trying to compare the colors on my own).

Since I knew I wanted brown in the living room, my next focus was on finding a good color for the kitchen, and I narrowed it down to three colors: deep orange (pumpkin-like), a deep chartreuse (called Chardonnay Bottle), and a teal blue (called Cabana). Ultimately Cabana won out-- the paint chip really made the wall pop, and we also really liked the coordinating browns.

Here's a before picture of the kitchen (we're only painting the one wall since we have plans to re-do the rest of the kitchen)

Here are some shots of the in-action work in the kitchen (Mom took charge of the trim work while I did the rolling... which worked out extremely well since she is a pro with the trim, and I end up painting everything I'm not supposed to when I attempt trim work).


I definitely like the teal MUCH better than the cream. I'm also extremely happy that the Kartell lamp still looks great against this color too. As a finishing touch, I framed two pieces of Snow & Graham wrapping paper that I found at Lesesne in the Upper King Street Design District of downtown Charleston. Right now I'm just leaving the frames unfinished until we get everything worked out for the kitchen. It's a definite improvement though.

The after shots:

An up-close of the Snow & Graham paper (fronds is on the left, and eucalyptus--whose color matches the lamp-- is on the right)

We also painted the half bath (which is located off of the master bedroom) this same color, and it's amazing how different the same color can look in two different rooms. The half bath was pretty much a boring white room before. All of the wall tiles had been reglazed white (from an overwhelming 50s pink), and the floor tiles are 1-inch squares in gray-specked white, light blue, green, and pink.


After (sorry the lighting is so bad)

the original light fixture, which I love (the circles are awesome)

Now, on to the living room. Here are the before shots:
as looking from the doorway to the kitchen

the other side of the living room

during the painting process



Now, on to the after shots (and more pictures will come when all of the art is back up on the walls). I'm very happy with the chocolate brown. Daniel and I were a little worried that it might be too dark, but the lighter brown/tan really balances it well, and the richness of the color actually makes our favorite part of the room, the window, stand out.