All It Takes Is a Fresh Coat of Paint

The fresh paint on the walls of our new house continues to spread, and I am so happy with the colors that we picked. Of course, almost anything would have looked better than the original colors, but that’s beside the point. (Seriously, though, who puts four different bright colors on walls right next to each other??? Insane.)

We decided to keep the main living area colors very similar to what we had in our last house because we liked them so much. We went with Valspar’s “Winter Wheat” in the front entry and hallway, living and dining rooms, half bath, stairwell, upstairs landing, and upstairs full bath. This color was the first one opened, and I loved it immediately.

 

In the kitchen, laundry room, breakfast area, and back hallway, we chose a Martha Stewart Glidden color called “Sealing Wax,” which is a rusty red reminiscent of a color in our first house. I was a little worried when I first saw the red painted on the wall, but I think it just looked strange next to the original baby blue. As of Wednesday, there was no longer any blue visible, and the red looks so warm and rich on those walls. It also looks great with the natural wood cabinets and black countertops in the kitchen. Another good choice!

 

For the guest bedroom and bathroom, previously painted turquoise blue and pale pink, respectively, I really wanted to find a purple that wasn’t too offensive. Luckily, Behr’s “Heather Plume” did the trick. I’m hoping the purple will go well with the furniture, bedding, shower curtain, and towels I already have, but the room will have to be set up completely before I’ll really be able to tell. This color isn’t Kenny’s favorite, but I’m so excited to have a purple set of rooms in the new house, and hopefully any guests we have over will think so too!

We chose another Martha Stewart Glidden color, “Schoolhouse Slate,” for the master suite (bedroom, bathroom, and closets). It’s a pretty blue-gray color with just a touch of green in it that I think will look great with our furniture and bedding. When the slate had only been cut in, it was really hard to picture it covering the entire wall, especially next to the original turquoise in the bedroom and then the pale pink in the bathroom. It actually looked like two different colors in each of those rooms.

But once the walls were completely rolled with the new color, I really liked the result. (Note: the lighting is off in a lot of these pics; it looks much better in person.)

The only other color needed was for the two upstairs bedrooms, Riley’s room and the office. We went with Behr’s “Antique Leather,” a pretty grayish brown, for both of those rooms. That is the last color to be painted, so it isn’t open yet. But I can’t wait for that green room to be turned into Riley’s room!

Two coats have been necessary in every room in the house, and then the last thing left to do is the trim. The crown molding was painted first, and it really is amazing what a fresh coat of white can do. We’ll have to replace the crown molding in the dining room, paint it white, and then install it, but that shouldn’t be too bad. One of the first things we did was to take down the original plastic, grape-infused crown molding and throw it in the garbage, right where it needed to be. Talk about tacky!

Another major undertaking was painting the exterior of the house. We decided to do all of that ourselves, including changing the color of the front. We chose Benjamin Moore’s “Kennebunkport Green” as the exterior color. A house down the street from Nola and Nopsi’s is actually painted that color, and I knocked on the door to ask for the name since I liked it so much!

Nopsi and I worked on the exterior color change on Monday, Nopsi cutting in and me rolling. I was a little hesitant with my roller at first, but I soon gained confidence and picked up the pace, allowing us to put one full coat on the front before calling it a day.

Riley even stopped by to help, and I must say he did a fabulous job rolling the sidewalk.

   

The green completely changes the appearance of the front, and the clean white trim around the windows, columns, and door only adds to the freshness. My gosh, does the house look different.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

We still have to clean and re-install the lanterns, scrape off the white trim paint that got onto the windows in the front and the back of the house, and maybe put a second coat of green on the front (and possibly refinish the front door), but all in all, I’d say we made some pretty darn good progress in our first week of homeownership.

I should have more updates to come next week, so look for those at some point. I apologize for not keeping up with my usual 5-times-a-week posting schedule, but I hope it’s clear why I’m not able to do that right now. :)

And, once again, we can’t thank all of our helpers enough for the work you did for us. Thank you thank you thank you!