Our House: FINALLY- Paint Goes On!!

Ok, well we have been in our house for a total of SEVEN months now and I have not posted anything house related here on the ol' bloggy blog..  You might think you have a lot to catch up on, but noooooo....oh no.  Since we moved in a just a few weeks before the Christmas lights started up last year, we didn't get anything done.  

I lied.  One thing.

Ernesto whipped up these bunk beds for the boys.  I showed him a picture for inspiration and he ran with it. God I love having a handy husband.  

Obviously not finished here.  There is a bottom bunk, and the ladder is on the short end of the bed.  Of course now they sit unpainted (or stained?) in an unpainted room.  Turning this space into a fun and functional place for the boys is on "the list" of things to tackle this Summer.

Ok, maybe one more thing happened before lighting season.  Painting the ceiling and beams.  This was a job we actually hired out, something not too common for us.  It was going to be a tedious job though with caulking all the boards; it sounded overwhelming.  They are tongue and groove, but over the years, cracks have emerged and I feared it would look "Shabby Chic" with cracks.   

Put a ladder anywhere near this one (and the other boy for that matter) and they will climb. 
 "Ok, paint one board."

For the beams we sampled a couple colors.  I LOVED SW Urbane Bronze (left below) but thought maybe I would put another color (more brown) next to it for comparison.  Status brown (right) looked like poop.

Urbane Bronze is tricky to describe.  It's kind of charcoal-ish but with a lot of brown.  I didn't want it to look gray, and I don't think it does.  It looks nice against the white, not stark. (See bad iphoto below)

Once the the holidays were over and we had a month to recoup (ie: sit around and do nothing!), we got to painting. One of our lighting guys who has been working with us forever is a professional painter (in the off season) so we booked him to get things rolling.  Ernesto painted WITH him most days.  

Having him show up everyday at 10am was just what we needed to motivate us.  A plan!

I went with a white paint everywhere and the transformation was instant and BEAUTIFUL!  Good bye horrible tan paint everywhere! Walls, ceilings, and BEAMS!? UGH! No no no!

You would think white is simple but on the contrare..... I had a horrible time deciding.

I am not a color expert, nor was I SUPER worried about all this "undertone" business, but just google "choosing a white paint" and your head will start to spin.  The more you look at pinterest and the like, the more confused you will be.

Under pressure (painter was at our house waiting for paint color) I chose Sherwin Williams Pure White for the ceilings. It was the whitest white  of alllll my samples.

Ok don't go picking any paint colors for yourself based on this horrible picture, but you can notice the color undertones easily.

It took me several days to decide on the adjacent wall color.  I wanted to just say "screw it, paint everything Pure White."  But I kept feeling like it would be too stark.. This is my first time going white and I was confused and second guessing.  On a side note, I remember yeeeears ago saying that I would NEVER paint my walls white. "With so many good colors WHY would I pick white?"

Moral: never say never)

 SW Alabaster kept coming up as a softer white and color match to the ever-popular BM White Dove.  As soon as the first wall was done, I new I had made the right decision. Whew!

A little difficult to see here [in my iPhone pics]  but there is a little contrast with the two whites and I am really digging it.  Needless to say, the house was a little disheveled during the process, but I am so happy with the results. (I will have to get better pics to reeeeally show you.)

I had a gallon of SW Shoji White (see sample above) on hand because I thought that was "the one" after seeing it on a blog that I love.  Yep, I just went and bought a gallon.  Rookie mistake. 

Anyhoo, although not the right shade of white for our living areas, it really was not a mistake.  This warm white is very nice and perfect in Paloma's room.  The cutting in was not finished here, but you can see the difference from the tan paint, and it's much better.

I have a vintage Persian in there with bright pinks and some great colorful art (yet to be hung) and this is the perfect neutral backdrop. 

Also, remember the fabulous Craigslisted armoire I scored and painted turquoise (when I was pregnant with Mateo!)??  Well, it has a new life.  She is now a beautiful shade of pink. SW Koral Kicks to be exact.  This peachy-coraly-pink gives a subtle pop against the soft white walls, and it's not sugary sweet.

I LOVE it.  It's not quite finished.  Painting those front cutouts is time consuming to say the least.  Yes, it's taking me MONTHS to get to all of them. Whew!

The only wall with COLOR upstairs is our bedroom and we only painted the wall behind the bed. (the tallest wall)   I wanted to have some color opposite all the windows.  I debated again with several swatches on my walls.

I was really inspired by a couple catalogs. Both West Elm and Cb2 were showing dark teal and I was loving it.  I bought several samples, throwing in some greens because I was also considering something forest-y.


I ended up with Ben Moore's Oasis Blue. (top right color in photo above)

It is beautiful!  

Before the wood headboard didn't stand out at all.  

Ok, lighting has everything to do with that in this pic, but.....still, you get the point. 

I LOVE how it turned out! Very rich but not super dramatic.  Now, wood headboard pops.

So obviously you need a whole bedroom shot, but Im not ready for that.  Take this little sneak peak (frog tape and all) for now, and know that a full reveal will come!