Dresser Inspiration

We have been able to resurrect a highly functional dresser that we had been storing in the basement. Trouble is, I painted it a long time ago a totally girly shabby chic white and distressed silver with glass knobs. So it needs a major re-haul to work in our more modern space. I am loving a lot about these, especially the first one. I'm not crazy about the chevrons on the bottom dresser, but I like how the green paint is transparent and loose. Painted furniture can sometimes look too overdone and trying too hard. I like these modern and casual treatments.

 

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Progress Report

Audrey's pink ceiling turned out really fantastic. We all love it. I will post a final picture and all the details once we get the chandelier hung and the trim painted. The photo below is before I painted the walls and finished the closet. Below that is Lindsey, bearded up and ready to go.

Last weekend my dad spray gun painted the basement ceiling and walls and the garage. This week the kitchen, living room, hallway, and main bathroom are being painted. Lindsey and I hope to finish both offices, our bedroom, and our bathroom this weekend. Whew! We've had to put this thing in overdrive because our closing date got moved up by two weeks. So, there goes most of February. We are stressed, happy, punchy.

Grays & Taupes in the Living Room

Progress continues, but slowly. My warm grays turn too taupe, too brown. My cool grays turn too blue, look like primer and ice. Where are you color perfection? So far, I've tried (left to right on first photo):

• SW Comfort Gray (too blue, but may consider for bedroom)
• BM Revere Pewter (too taupe)
• MS Malted (only considered briefly as accent color)
• MS Heavy Goose (a contender)
• BM Gray Owl (turns too blue)
• SW Worldy Gray (too pink)
• SW Amazing Gray (too dark)

Paint Scheme In The New House

So after trips to Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, Hanneke Hardware, Home Depot, and Lowe's I've accumulated enough paint chips to wallpaper the basement. I thought I had everything so perfectly chosen. Then I slapped some paint samples up on the wall and looked at them at different times of the day and...not working. The main gray I selected for most of the house (Revere Pewter/Benjamin Moore) is way too brown most of the day and turns chalky in the evening. The other gray I chose (Heavy Goose/Martha Stewart) is nice in the day, but turns icy blue with less sun. And the gorgeous greenish gold I chose looks like mustard at all times of the day.

So back to the drawing board.

I'm noticing that in the kitchen all my samples seem to take on a purplish hue. I'm wondering if I should just go with (hold your breath) charcoal gray. Really, there isn't much wall space. The kitchen is mostly cabinetry and windows. The main wall in there will be covered by my hutch so I think it could be dramatic and pretty awesome.

Exuberant Pink Painted Ceiling

Audrey went with me paint shopping. She picked this paint swatch for her room. She's been talking about purple and rainbows, so I was surprised by the pink, but I have been contemplating a colorful ceiling in her room with nearly white walls, so we are going for it. I want to keep everything pretty light and neutral since she has so much colorful stuff. We may or may not do the dots. I want it to be "hers" but am trying to keep it from looking too ticky tacky carnival.

Sherwin Williams 6840 Exuberant Pink

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Paint Tools

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After six plus years of beige/khaki walls throughout the downstairs, I'm looking forward to a new neutral. Probably gray, if I can find one that will also work with the kitchen. I just don't think I can go with straight white. It seems too cold and unfinished even though I have a ton of white rooms pinned. I hate the TV over the fireplace (above) and we will undoubtedly have more colorful and personal objects, but this room seems like a livable gray. But it may be too blue. This is going to be difficult.

Here are some of the paint tools I've been using.  

Favorite Paint Colors
Blog where readers submit photos of their rooms and the paint colors used. Allows you to see real-world examples. 

Valspar Virtual Painter
The Virtual Painter allows you to apply color palettes to photos that you upload. 

Sherwin Williams ChipIt!
Color tool that lets you instantly turn any picture online into a color palette pulled from more than 1500 Sherwin-Williams paint colors.