paint

On a Safari

Published on March 26, 2013March 26, 2013 by Our Humble Abode13 Comments

Okay, this should be the last of the guest room/Handy Sammy’s room chronicles. Why? Because Ben installed the trim and I got it and the walls painted. Meaning, this room is finito. At least for a while. After much debate and help from you, we settled on Safari from Benjamin Moore, color matched to Glidden Duo.

Ben said the darker color, Honeymoon, looked like (and I quote) “calf scours.” No cow poop on the walls, thank you. Lighter Safari it is. Though the color is a tad brighter than I expected.

Ben and I are happy with it, but more importantly, Handy Sammy likes it. But, it is fun and warm. Still dark enough to make the trim stand out.

Speaking of trim, I painted it off-the-shelf white Glidden Duo in eggshell. Then gave Frog Tape a chance for redemption by taping off the trim before painting the walls. And I cringed while doing so, because I had painted the trim the day before. But, I also used the Duo to paint the bookshelves, and it seemed to harden quicker and be more durable than regular Glidden.

Wouldn’t ya know it, I made it through the entire painting process without one swear word. Yes, the tape came off clean without tearing off the trim paint. Hallelujah. Maybe the paint and primer combo helped. Or the lower sheen could have been a factor. I probably pressed lighter on the tape, too. Whatever the reason, I’m happy. This is probably the most accurate picture showing the color as it is in the room.

Because I already had the pictures down, I filled the nail holes. The bird, tree, and feather gallery wall fits well in the room (covering the old sconce covers), so I think I’ll rehang it.

I asked Handy Sammy his opinions but he wasn’t much help. He said having a comfy bed and place to relax was all he needed. What do you think? Rehang the gallery wall, or go with something new? What do you think of the color?

Which Way, Which Gray?

Published on March 12, 2013March 12, 2013 by Our Humble Abode8 Comments

Hey friends! Sorry I wasn’t here yesterday. I started a few projects and wanted/needed to finish them up. One of those projects is for our master bedroom. You see, here’s our current bed set up.

We had a bed frame and headboard, but they squeaked every time we rolled over. So annoying, so we took it out. Now we’re living bachelor pad style, with the box spring on the floor. At least we have two box springs to get some height. Yes, so fancy.

Ben built a bed over the weekend. And I have some work to do to make it purty. But, I need to choose a paint color. Wanna help? Right now, the room is a blank slate. Only the painted doors will stay. Possibly the bedding, but we’ll probably stick with white if we change it out.

Regardless of the item, I’m consistently drawn to blue-greens. Either Blue Sage or something similar will go on the walls when we get to that point. What color should we paint the bed? We’ve ruled out white (too much) and black (because we’ve already had one and want something different). Of course we’ve got several dark gray colors going on (the doors and the entertainment center). Which brings us to… light gray.

I pulled out a bunch of swatches I already had and then plucked out the too green/purple/dark ones, which left me with six contenders. Left to right we’ve got Gray Owl, Harbor Gray, Wickham Gray, Classic Gray, (all Benjamin Moore) Oyster Pearl Clark + Kensington), and Ocean Pearl (Behr) on top. Do you have a favorite? Or a light gray I didn’t mention? I bought a test sample of Oyster Pearl yesterday. On its own, it looks almost white. Against something white, it looks perfect. At least to me. I need to get Ben’s opinion.

What do you think of the color combo?

Would you go with gray? Or something else entirely?

Side-Splitting Skinny Dipping

Published on September 12, 2012October 18, 2012 by Our Humble Abode10 Comments

Sometimes, projects we tackle are big. Others are little and not worthy of an individual blog post. Today, you get a two for one. One part side-splitting, one part skinny dipping. One of our map cut out frames took a spill while I was in Minnesota. Somehow (Ben still isn’t giving full details) the frame fell, but he caught it before the glass shattered.

But he didn’t catch the frame before the right corner hit the floor, splitting and denting the joint.

After living with the broken frame on my desktop for a month and a half, I finally got annoyed enough to fix it. I dug around in the garage to find the staple gun and staples. That’s all it took to fix the frame. So, I took out the metal pieces that held the frame together before.

And put five staples in the corner. Sure, it looks like Frankenstein’s monster, but it works.

Then I sprayed the dented corner with a little white paint.

Good as new(ish) back up on the wall, thus concluding today’s side-splitting segment.

Now to the skinny dipping segment. I’ve wanted to dip furniture legs for a while now. I love the look and the bit of fun dipped legs add. While making our bed one morning, I realized the boring white Ikea Lindved tables we’re using as night stands could use some fun.

Using a ruler, I measured five inches on each leg, made a mark with a pencil, and taped off each leg.

Outside, I gave each leg a coat of gold spray paint.

Ten minutes later, I gave the legs another coat and left the tables to dry. Outside, I loved how the legs looked. But when I brought them inside, not so much.

The gold paint blended in with the wood floors. Boo. But, I had a can of silver spray paint left over from another project. Why not try it? After taping off the legs and spraying the legs a few time, I’m much happier with the results.

More fun than the boring white tables, but still simple. Who knows, when we decide on a color scheme for the room, I might change it up again. Perhaps a fun teal? Or kelly green? I don’t know, but the possibilities are endless.

How do you fix picture frames? Does it take you a month and a half to get around to a simple fix? Maybe you’ve dip painted furniture legs?

Climbing a Dusty Mountain

Published on September 4, 2012March 26, 2013 by Our Humble Abode17 Comments

Not long ago, we had a ketchup and mustard look on our unfinished entertainment center.

After my bathroom painting marathon, I decided to knock out the entertainment center so we didn’t think of hot dogs. While I painted, Ben added the face trim, side detail, and crown molding.

Of course painting isn’t that easy. Oh no, first I had to fill every nail hole, wait for the filler to dry, then sand it smooth. And then the priming phase.

Man was I ready to start painting. Originally Ben and I had agreed on a white entertainment center with a colorful backing. So I tested out my options inside the cabinets he built and liked Ben Moore’s Yosemite yellow. But then we started talking it over and decided white wasn’t the direction we wanted to take. Why the sudden change of heart? Well, Ben pointed out how much light the front window lets in, which also means a lot of glare. Bright white might cause a lot of eye strain when we’re relaxing in front of the tv at night. White is a safe choice, and maybe too safe. Let’s try a darker color, like gray. But I didn’t want a sea of gray, so it had to be different enough from the wall color. I picked out two Ben Moore colors, Kendall Charcoal and Amherst Gray.

Kendall Charcoal was a great deep gray, but too blue for our liking. Amherst Gray was too light. While at Home Depot shopping for some other supplies, we walked to the paint department and looked at more swatches. I pulled out a Behr color that I’ve liked for years, Squirrel. About six years ago, I painted our master bedroom this color, but Ben said it felt like a battleship. Since then, he has come around to more modern designs, and doesn’t hate all gray paint. But we quickly agreed Squirrel was too light. That’s an easy fix, we just chose the color below, Dusty Mountain. Without hesitation, we bought a gallon of eggshell paint and headed home.

In the pictures above, you can see we bought the paint before I was ready to paint. After finishing the prep and priming, I started with the color.

Love at first sight. Especially paired with the reddish Bubinga top. Yum.

Ben came home, saw this and proclaimed his love, too.

I think the green undertones are lovely and reminiscent of an expensive library. Just picture this color on crazy tall shelves with a brass bar for the sliding wooden ladder.

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But I couldn’t let go of wanting a splash of color. Using the yellow left over from the cabinets, I tested it on the backs.

I love the idea, but the contrast was too much for tv watching.

Ben suggested I paint the back Wood Smoke like the walls. Instead, I took the easy way out and painted it Dusty Mountain.

Ahh, that’s better. Ugly speakers blend in with this more. We’ll build doors for the side cabinets, but the yellow will be a fun surprise inside.

If we had cabinet grade plywood, we could have built the drawers. Sadly, Home Depot doesn’t have any in stock because it’s seasonal. Ummm, what? Hopefully they get it in, because we can’t make the fronts until the drawers are installed. I’m telling you, our plans are always contingent on something else.

Progress is progress, and I’m happy.

So, what do you think of the color? Are you into darker, saturated colors, too? Or are you more of a light and airy person? Do you and your significant other agree on colors easily?

Puttin’ On My Painting Clothes

Published on August 27, 2012October 9, 2012 by Our Humble Abode17 Comments

Welp, over the last four days I did a lot of prep and painting. Thought it may not look like I did. You know, the main bathroom is deceptively large and then factor in the trim detail I had to work with. It took most of my weekend, but we’re one step closer to a finished bathroom. Last weekend, Ben installed most of the trim. He finished up on Tuesday, installing the cap and details around the vanity. I spent a few hours filling nail holes and caulking the seams on Wednesday. After that, I packed up the boys and we took a trip to the lumber yard to search for the perfect crown molding. Five samples came home with me, but I had a clear favorite. That one, at the top of the pile.

Ben agreed, and it was the second cheapest option. Hooray! Thursday I sanded everything and started priming. Then on Friday I put on the first coat of white paint. After our home-made waffle breakfast, our little family made another trip to the lumber yard to buy our crown molding to finish off the bathroom. Ben installed it once we got home. Of course that gave me more nail holes to fill and seams to caulk, but the end was in sight. While letting the caulk dry, I put a second coat of white on the lower half. Bright and early on Sunday morning, I sanded the crown and gave it a quick, heavy coat of white. Luckily, one coat covered the crown completely, so I let that dry and worked on the entertainment center. (More on that project soon!) Then I taped off the white trim to give the walls and ceiling a second coat of gray. And so I did. Because I worked my butt off to get this all done, I thought it be best to tell you every detail of the process so you feel like you’ve painted with me. Haha. I told you all of that to show you this; our (almost) finished bathroom.

While I’m biased, I’m completely in love. And it’s nice to see the trim one color. So much whiter and brighter.

We’ve got a few little things to do, like build faux drawers for the vanity, paint the door (which means the rest of the doors in the house will get painted as well-I think I’ve landed on a color), and spray paint the fan cover.

The rest is d.o.n.e. As I mentioned, Ben and I had a few disagreements about trim placement. Lucky for me, he agreed to add 1/4 inch detail trim around the side of the linen closet.

The rest of the room has a decorative trim (which also functions to hide the peeled sheet rock).

The same trim wraps around the vanity acting as a back splash.

Details make me happy. While this trim is simple, I think it works well with the modern meets traditional aesthetic we’re going for.

Simple square door casement with a touch of detail.

And let’s talk about the crown. We had the option to use traditional crown, similar to what is in the rest of the house, like this for 55 and 75 cents per linear foot.

But it all felt too formal and traditional. Instead, we landed on a door casement with a slightly detailed, but still clean lined profile. For us, this works. We used casement as crown in our first house with great results. And, this trim is only 45 cents a linear foot. At that price, for our 8 foot square bathroom, the crown cost only $11.25.

Big impact for little money. And the casement is easier to work with that true crown.

What do you think of our almost finished bathroom? Did you work all weekend? Or did you take some time to relax? I’m off to work on the entertainment center now.