Home Improvement

Choosing Paint Colors

Published on August 6, 2010May 25, 2011 by Our Humble Abode12 Comments

Paint colors can be difficult to choose. A lot of colors look great as paint chips, but not as great in mass quantity on a wall. We have definitely had our share of colors that seem great, but are atrocious. We have learned a few tips and tricks (some the hard way) about painting.

A few months before Ben and I were married, I came out to Montana to visit. During that visit, we started brainstorming ideas for the first few rooms we planned to finish. We easily agreed to install white trim in every room. Then, we chose paint colors, bought a few gallons and went back home. We chose Ralph Lauren’s Riesling and Behr’s Squirrel. I liked the airiness of Riesling and the moodiness of Squirrel. Ben lovingly agreed. We painted the first finished bedroom Riesling and loved it.

Then we finished the guest room. Then we repainted the living room. When we finally got around to the master bedroom, the tone of the house had been set. Dark, moody Squirrel was out. It just didn’t fit. I loved the color, but it didn’t work with the rest of the house. We tried a lighter grey, but decided we needed a color that coördinated with the finished rooms.

Moral of the Story: When choosing paint colors, first think about if the color will coördinate with other colors in your house.

I am more drawn to colors on the cooler side of the color wheel, like greens, blues, and purples. Red, orange, and yellow are on the warm side of the color wheel. In my opinion, pale blues and pinks are by far the least forgiving.

Our master bedroom color scheme is green with pink accents. When we finished our master bathroom, which is attached to our bedroom, I wanted to switch things up, but not too much. Rather than green walls with pink accents, I wanted pink walls with green accents. Well, I chose a light pink, got home and started painting. Oops! Definitely not a light pink. More like bubblegum pink! Needless to say, our bathroom did not stay pink. Nope, it’s the same color as our bedroom.

Moral of the Story: If you’re looking for a pale color, choose one that you like, then buy the lighter version. Believe me, paint seems to get brighter when you start putting it on your walls.

By far, my favorite paint colors are from Restoration Hardware. Saturated hues toned down with grey equals perfection in my book. Thus, many of the colors in our house are Restoration Hardware colors, color matched at Wal-Mart. Our main bathroom is RH Lilac:

The guest bedroom is painted RH Sea Green:

Our master bedroom and bathroom is RH Bay Laurel:

Our basement and dining room are mis-tinted versions of RH Silver Sage.

The basement bathroom is RH Sycamore Green:

Moral of the Story: When you find something that works, stick with it. I love that most of our colors are from the same line of paint, so everything is cohesive and goes well together.

We use satin finish paint in almost all our rooms, with the exception of the bathrooms, where we used semi gloss. We chose these finishes for durability purposes. Flat finishes do not stand up to the damage our two-year old doles out on a daily basis.

Dining Room: Updated

Published on August 3, 2010May 25, 2011 by Our Humble Abode23 Comments

Over the weekend, we decided to repaint our dining room, completing the transformation. We used the same color as the basement, which extends up the staircase and is visible from the living room, dining room, and kitchen.

I cleared the room and taped off the trim while Ben was at work. After removing the curtains, I decided that I liked how open the window looked. So, I took the outer curtain supports down, patched the holes and sanded it smooth.

I don’t have much time to paint with a three-year old and four-month old. Fortunately, Ben is a quick painter and the area is small. It literally took about eighteen minutes to repaint. Here he is, hard at work.

We had to do two coats. One on Saturday afternoon.

And another on Sunday morning.

Ben hung the curtain brackets about 5 inches from where they were. It’s really amazing how much more open the window seems now. I love it.

I did love the old, dark blue color (Benjamin Moore’s Hale Navy), but this definitely fits in with the rest of the house. The curtains are more fitting with the wall color, too. Sure, the plates don’t pop as much against the new wall color, but the dark table top was just too dark with the old wall color.

The room has come a long way in the past few years. Now it’s exactly as I had imagined. The plate rack is a nice feature, serving as art and storage.

We have some touch up paint to do, especially on the white, but it’s good enough for now. I’m a happy camper. Touch up paint can wait. Let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we?

Here was the dining room as I received it, thanks to Ben’s decorating.

Then we added trim, a plate rack and repainted. We also bought a new rug and I made curtains. Then we had this:

We recently installed a new light fixture and Ben built an ah.maz.ing table for us, bringing us to this point:

And here we are today!

Do you have any projects to take on this weekend?

Dining Table Update

Published on July 27, 2010September 9, 2010 by Our Humble AbodeLeave a comment

You may recall that we’ve recently built a new dining table.

After using it for a few weeks, I’m happy to report that it is still as fantastic as I hoped it would be. Most visitors don’t believe it was a DIY project, either. Score!

We were a little hesitant to get a marble top because marble can stain easily, but we haven’t had any problems so far. We actually poured a little grape juice on the sample and let it sit for a good 20 minutes. Then we wiped it off and we couldn’t see a stain or any sort of discoloration. A few coats of a nice quality wax will help prevent stains, too.

Our son also loves his new fort. He couldn’t play under our old table due to the pedestal design. Another benefit when dealing with small children: the steel was spray painted, so it will be super cheap and easy to touch up down the road. Simply remove the top, haul the base outside and give the table a coat or two of plain ol’ spray paint. Heck, we could change the color if we wanted to.

The World Market chairs we picked up are comfortable, too. The size is perfect for our table. I love the color and the slightly rustic finish is a great way to disguise future wear. The stacking Target chairs are so convenient to carry up and down the stairs and are easy to store.

When we planned to build a table, we knew we would not have the option to expand the table to add leaves, but most often, our old table was at the smallest size. Over the weekend, we had several guests and missed the larger table. Only for a minute, though. This table looks so much better than our old table and all the options we could find locally. We plan to buy a card table or two for future large gatherings.

Overall, we love the table, chairs and usability of the set. With that said, I’m curious to know what piece of furniture made your lives easier?

It’s the Little Things

Published on July 26, 2010May 25, 2011 by Our Humble AbodeLeave a comment

It’s the little things that will kill you…

We’ve decided to tackle some of the small, daunting, and/or tedious projects that have been on our to do list for some time.

First, we grouted our master bathtub seam to prevent leaks.

We had used caulking, but everything peeled when we cleaned it, leaving an open area for water to trickle.

Follow that up with some much needed cleaning. Our bathroom fan was seriously gross, so Ben cleaned that. Then we cleaned some of the hard to reach areas that never get dusted.

We also had some areas to fill in with landscaping rock, so when I was in Minnesota, Ben did some work.

We decided to add rock along the south side of our backyard.

What’s on your to do list?

Let There Be Light

Published on July 19, 2010September 12, 2012 by Our Humble Abode1 Comment

Ben has a lot of great ideas, especially when it comes to accent lighting. When we added this trim to our master bedroom, Ben got the idea to add hardwired rope lights inside. After taking the time to drill through each header, Ben had the wiring ready. Ben bought 3 to 6 foot long rope light strips from Home Depot. The lengths of the rope lighting depended on the width of the door or window they would go over. Ben plugged the lights in and wired in a dimmer switch. We love how handy the lights are, especially now that we’re waking up in the middle of the night to change diapers.

I had been planning my office for quite some time, but over looked the lighting. Ben suggested we install halogen puck lights to create task lighting. We have two sets, one on each side of the upper cabinets. The lights have two hidden switches located under my marble desktop.