Not for the Indecisive

Whew! It didn't take long for me to figure out that deciding paint colors is NOT an easy task! At least not for me. I found it so challenging to try to have some sort of idea where I wanted to go with the entire room (fabric, curtains, furniture, etc) so that I could decide on the right paint color to coordinate. I probably allowed this to be way more overwhelming than it should be, but when you have painters ready for their next room color decision and a book with about 2000 different colors to choose from it can really feel that way!! Needless to say I spent A LOT of time studying the huge SW color wheel, spent way too much money on paint samples (those things can really add up!), and could rattle off more SW paint color names than any one person should know. But, we eventually got every room decided and I am so happy with the way they all turned out!

I also want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to my Dad, "Handy Randy" as we nicknamed him, for all of his help on this house. Without him, we would not have accomplished even close to what we have so far. He has spent pretty much every spare moment of his time working on this house like it was his own, and we could not have tackled any of these projects without him. We certainly owe him big time! And also a HUGE THANK YOU to my Mom who we have dubbed my "design consultant". She has agonized with me over paint colors, fabric choices, and bedding when I'm sure she had much more important things to worry about, and has been able to lend much great decorating advice when I am in desperate need of a second opinion.

So, here is what we ended up with--

The first part of the painting we actually tackled after the ceilings was all the trim. This included crown, baseboards, window frames, door frames, doors, built in bookcases, and the mantle. For this we used Sherwin Williams Extra White which is actually what comes in the paint cans before adding any tint. This is what is recommended to use when you are looking for just a standard bright white. Although it is hard to appreciate in pictures.. painting this trim work provided a DRASTIC improvement in the looks of this house. I mean.. WOW. This trim was in serious need of a paint job and the way it popped with a fresh coat of that Extra White looked SO good!  

In these pictures you can see that the window and baseboards have been painted but the bookshelf hasn't. This shows how drastically different the bright white looked against the old, dirty white. 

Now, on to the good stuff...

Living Room

The living room started out a grey-ish color. Not bad, but didn't really work for what I knew I wanted to do with this room. We painted it Sherwin Williams Copen Blue: 

Dining Room/Den

This is the largest room in the house and connects to the kitchen. It was originally a very drab beige that just wasn't doing much for the room. I knew I wanted to do a dark beige color to make this room really pop, especially with all the white trim surrounding it. This was the color I definitely had the hardest time figuring out. It took quite a bit of samples to finally nail it down...

 ..but the painful search definitely paid off when we finally landed on Sherwin Williams Latte! The guy at SW told us this was the most popular beige family color card (a very neutral beige without too much pink, grey, or gold tones) and we ended up using other colors from this card in other rooms in the house which gave the feel of continuity I was looking for. I don't have many pictures of this room but I really love how the Latte turned out. I think it gives just the right amount of statement to this big room and it coordinates really well with the Copen Blue in the Living Room (in the Living Room photo above you can see the Latte through the doorway against the Copen Blue).

Master Bedroom

Originally another drab beige, we painted it Sherwin Williams Rainwashed:

It actually looks a lot bluer (less gray/green) in real life than what this swatch shows. It's very similar to the Copen Blue from the Living Room.. just a little bit lighter. Gives the room such a fresh, bright feel!

Master Bathroom

Goodbye pink!!! The pink they decorated these bathrooms with has been bugging me from day one. We painted both bathrooms Sherwin Williams Kilim Beige:

This is from the same card as Latte, two shades lighter. The perfect neutral to compliment the tile work in the bathrooms.

Hallway

This was another space I couldn't wait to spruce up. The walls were literally plain white. We painted it Sherwin Williams Latte to match with the Dining Room/Den area to keep some continuity. It looks MUCH better than the plain white, and I no longer cringe when I see the hallway. 

Guest Bedroom #1

We decided to keep this room pretty neutral, but I also wanted to change it up from the beiges we had been using elsewhere. We went with Sherwin Williams Pavilion Beige which is another good neutral beige and I think it will go well with our current bedding.

Guest Bedroom #2

Although I didn't mind the green that was here originally, it was not working against the blue in the Master Bedroom (this is the bedroom that connects to the Master). This room will be somewhat of an "office" for now, so I also wanted to give it a more sophisticated feel than it had with the green. I went with Sherwin Williams Nomadic Desert:

This is also from the same card as Latte, just one shade lighter. 

So there you have it! It really is amazing what a good coat of paint can do.. and this house looked better and better with every coat of paint we added! Hope you like it!

Sherwin Williams' Most Frequent Customers

Yall, this house.. there was literally not a piece of wall, trim, ceiling, or cabinet that didn't need a new coat of paint. And I mean, DESPERATE need. Not only were the color choices pretty drab for the most part, there was dirt, scuff marks, and peeling everywhere. So, the first item we knew we needed to tackle on our big project list after the ceilings were finished was paint.

Speaking of the project list... this is the "Official Project List" that stays on the fridge for reference. I'm afraid that we are adding things to it at a faster rate than they are getting checked off. It's never-ending I tell ya. 

We decided to go with Sherwin Williams for our paint supply after a few great recommendations, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint! Sherwin Williams runs sales on their paint pretty regularly, and a few times a year they will put it at 40% off.. a really great deal! We caught the big sale and tried to estimate as best we could how much paint we would need for ALL of this painting. The nice thing is you can buy it all un-tinted and just bring it in to get the shade you want added later. That way, you don't have to know every color you want ahead of time (which would have been nearly impossible for me) and you can also return anything you overestimated that hasn't been tinted. 

Sherwin Williams was great to work with and it was really great having a store right here in Easley to make a paint run whenever needed. There was probably not a day that went by that we didn't make a stop by the good 'ol SW.. and sometimes more than once a day. They seriously knew us by name. So if you have any questions about SW paint.. I'm your girl. 

Here is what we used:

SW Eminence Ceiling Paint

This comes ready to paint as is for ceilings (no tint needs to be added for regular, white ceilings)

SW Emerald Semi-Gloss for all Trim painting 

(crown, baseboards, doors, door frames, window frames, bookshelves, mantle)

SW Emerald Matte for all walls except Bathrooms

SW Emerald Satin for Bathroom Walls

(This gives the walls a slightly glossy finish for durability and water resistance, but not quite as glossy as the semi-gloss trim paint)

SW ProClassic Semi-Gloss for Kitchen Cabinets

This is what the SW guy recommended for cabinet use-- turned out beautiful!

I would recommend ANY of the above paints in a heartbeat. I promise you, it is money well spent. It all went on so easy and covered so well. "You get what you pay for" has never been more true.

So after.. 

8 gallons of ceiling paint,

3 gallons of trim paint,

8 gallons of wall paint,
4 quarts of wall paint,
5 gallons of cabinet paint,
and more sample jars than I care to admit..

I am happy to say that after swimming in 25 gallons worth of paint for about 5 weeks, we are D.O.N.E. painting. Seriously, stick a fork in us. We still have some touch up work and a few small things left (all of which we should be able to accomplish with the paint we have left over... PLEASE no more money spent at SW!!), but the big majority of this project is finished. A HUGE checkmark on our project list!! Woo-hoo!!

Stay tuned for next post to see how it all turned out!

Goodbye Popcorn!

Remember these lovely popcorn ceilings? :

Let's just say they were not my favorite part about the house, and removing them was near the top of my wish list. After a lot of online research we decided this was way too big of a project to tackle on our own. Turns out it is NOT a fun job and it is really hard to do right. And since pretty much the entire house is popcorn aside from the two bathrooms and the closets, we knew this wasn't a DIY opportunity. It is also a very messy job, so we knew we needed to do it very first, before any other projects started. (Turns out the rates are also reduced if the house has no furniture in it and if the walls will be painted after smoothing-- score!) So with the help of "Drywall Steve", as he calls himself, we now have beautiful, smooth ceilings!! 

When he came to check out the house and give us a quote, we found out that not only were the ceilings popcorn textured, but they had also been painted at some point over the years meaning they are pretty much impossible to scrape off at that point. This meant that rather than simply scraping the ceilings back to their pre-textured state, he would have to spread a coat of drywall material (a "skim-coat") on top of the texture to bring the entire thing to a smooth finish. 

Here are a few pictures during the process:

First coat is on.. getting smoother! 

Steve would also make repairs in the ceilings and walls as he came across imperfections, nail holes, cracks, etc and brought all walls and ceilings to a smooth, ready-to-paint finish. 

And here are the final results, pre-painting:

And the painted finish:

(You can see we were also in the middle of testing sample after sample for paint colors)

My very handy project team painting the ceilings!

So there you have it! Steve was great to work with and the finished product was exactly what I was hoping for! The painted popcorn almost doubled the cost of this project from what we were expecting (a fabulous way to begin this home renovation), but I think that this may end up being the best investment we make in the house. It's hard to appreciate from the pictures, but the entire house looks drastically updated from just this one project. So, if you are thinking about smoothing your ceilings.. do it! You won't regret it.