Last week, we spent a couple hours two nights trimming out the entire great room, which took a long time considering so many doors and windows and cabinets and corners! And then Saturday, we knocked out all the rolling in a couple hours total. And we were left with a much lighter house that we're so happy with. Evidence you say?
Here's what we started with:
And here's how it looks today:
If a house could lose weight, that's what i would say happened. It shed a ton of pounds--although it also feels bigger, so I am not sure that's the right analogy. Kitchen!
Woohoo!! Like I mentioned in this post, we decided on a really light taupe that is sometimes tan, sometimes gray and sometimes a soft grayish green. Ace Hardware's Richland in their Clark + Kensington line. It's such a clean, ethereal, and calming paint color that we'll live with for a good long time. We were worried the painting process would include a few coats of primer before painting since the walls were so dark to begin with but the people at Ace were certain their Clark + Kensington paint would have no trouble since it has a primer built in. Spoiler--they were right. I snapped the photo below with my phone while rolling on the first coat:
Impressive. The whole thing took 2 and a half coats total. Two full and then one more in various places. It had a good thickness that didn't drip either. Good paint, people. Here's how the living room looks now.
This room will change drastically before we're done. A window on the right. A fireplace where the couch is. Uh, more furniture. A new rug. Hardwood floors. This house has 1000 more square feet than our last house so everything is sparse right now, and I also feel like I have to explain why everything doesn't look great right this second. Haha. Just know, with fresh paint, we're finally looking at a starting point.
We didn't paint the staircase to the left quite yet because we want to tear down some wall detailing first, but it will eventually be Richland as well. I think all of these clean walls are calling for some art now. On it.
This post is in partnership with Ace Hardware. We were chosen to be apart of the Ace Blogger Panel this year and received 5 gallons of Clark + Kensington paint in Eggshell to review for this post as a part of our agreement.
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[…] address this in our 2015 projects to look for post and hopefully have answers by then. 6. When we painted the great room, we didn’t extend the paint into the adjoining staircase because it required a little more […]
[…] when we painted the great room the first time around, we never painted the stairwell for some reason. Well, actually, the reason is probably that it […]
[…] The truth is we like our current color (Clark+Kensington’s Richland) that we picked out and painted over dark dark brown/black just over a year ago. It’s a warm and neutral off-white. It brightens our whole house without feeling cold. […]
[…] different. But, we have come a long way in a year thanks in large part to redoing the floors and painting the walls (something we are thinking about doing again!), the patio doors and adding some furniture. We also […]
Quick question if you can, you didn't paint the trim did you?
Could I ask you where you got the arch floor lamp in the living room? I am trying to find one that is not too expensive. Yours looks nice, :)
Is it bad I liked the before? I think once the kitchen is done, it will be obvious that this was a good choice! Right now though, I like the contrast of the dark. Sorrrrrrrrry! Please don't hate me
It's so BRIGHT and natural and... so so Julie.
That is an amazing transformation. The area has a bright , open vibe to it now. Congratulations on paying off your school loans. As a follower of Dave Ramsey, I can appreciate what you did. It takes great discipline and determination to become debt-free, but it's awesome when you do!
Looks mucho better!!!!!!!!
It's amazing the transformation just from paint alone.
Do you have plans for the light over the kitchen table? I have the same issue with ours not being centered and it drives me nuts. I want to move it but am worried about messing up the ceiling.
Absolutely! We had to do this quite a bit in our last house too. It just requires a ceiling patch and texture to match your ceiling (if your ceilings are textured). Most hardware stores sell every kind of texture spray under the sun.
Really makes the rooms feel bigger. Nice color choice!
So much better! Love it!
Wow looks great!
My eyes thank you!
WOW! That made a HUGE difference, I love it! You guys are so on it! I'm two years into my first house and still trying to pull the trigger on artwork and decorating in so many areas of the house (we have 2000 sq ft), it's literally taking me forever! I feel like everyone in the blogisphere is about 10 steps ahead of me and use your ideas to help me get a move on it, lol. Great job!
Soooooo much better already! The color is great. Glad to see you back in the project saddle. Hope you are feeling well!
wow! That made a WORLD of difference!
what a difference that makes!
Such an awesome change! Love the lighter color! :)
HOLY COW! It looks so good already! I can't believe it! Why did the original home owners ever think that dark color on ALL THOSE WALLS was a good idea? Fastest way to feel claustrophobic. Geez. The new paint color looks so nice. I totally see dark planked hardwood floors in here. What type of hardwoods are you wanting?
When we were shopping for hardwoods before we decided to pay off all our student loans instead, we decided on a very durable Bamboo. Saving our pennies!!!