Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Paint colors
I have literally spent more time trying to figure out paint colors than I have spent on practically any decision I've ever made, from what college to go to, to what car to buy. There is just something about it that scares me, partly because I refuse to go with the same boring old beige throughout the house but I haven't felt confident enough to think I know how to coordinate colors.
The difficulty is that when standing in any one room, you can see at least two others, if not three, especially since the dividing wall between the kitchen and dining is now gone, and there's a french door between the living room and front bedroom, making it more of a study.
I went through magazines. I collected tons of paint chips of various brands. I consulted friends, family and friends who are experts. I sampled at least 10 colors a few months ago. I tried every possible way that would make the decision for me. But in the end, I think the best way to put your personality into a place is to dive in and pick it yourself...and then live with the consequences, at least until it's time to paint again.
I procrastinated the paint selections till the very last minute, and then I ended up going for colors I had never sampled. Here are my color picks:
Living room - Behr contemplation (interior flat enamel)
Dining room - Behr color match to Glidden's cookie crumb (interior flat enamel)
Study - Behr grape vine (interior flat enamel)
Hallway - Behr contemplation (interior flat enamel)
Bedroom - Behr color match to Ralph Lauren's silver chiffon (interior flat enamel)
Trim, doors, kitchen cabinets - Behr Swiss coffee (interior semi-gloss)
Ceiling - Behr Swiss coffee (interior flat enamel)
The difficulty is that when standing in any one room, you can see at least two others, if not three, especially since the dividing wall between the kitchen and dining is now gone, and there's a french door between the living room and front bedroom, making it more of a study.
I went through magazines. I collected tons of paint chips of various brands. I consulted friends, family and friends who are experts. I sampled at least 10 colors a few months ago. I tried every possible way that would make the decision for me. But in the end, I think the best way to put your personality into a place is to dive in and pick it yourself...and then live with the consequences, at least until it's time to paint again.
I procrastinated the paint selections till the very last minute, and then I ended up going for colors I had never sampled. Here are my color picks:
Living room - Behr contemplation (interior flat enamel)
Dining room - Behr color match to Glidden's cookie crumb (interior flat enamel)
Study - Behr grape vine (interior flat enamel)
Hallway - Behr contemplation (interior flat enamel)
Bedroom - Behr color match to Ralph Lauren's silver chiffon (interior flat enamel)
Trim, doors, kitchen cabinets - Behr Swiss coffee (interior semi-gloss)
Ceiling - Behr Swiss coffee (interior flat enamel)
Progress
This first phase of the remodeling project has taken longer than expected. It was slated to be a two-week project, which granted was an optimistic estimate. About a month later, it is half-way there.
To be fair, I'm making the decisions as I go, some of them not fast enough. And, I have thrown in extra items that were not part of the original plan. Plus, we had to fire the first trim guy, after struggling for a week and half to get him to do things right the first time.
Here's the progress report:
Electrical - Completed. The original quote was for something like 12 additional outlets. I added 40-some outlets, including TV, phone jacks, including cat 5 writing for a LAN line, and general plugs in every room. The existing plugs were either in weird places or not grounded (two-pronged instead of three), or both.
Closets - The doors will need some fine-tuning in the end, but they are up and framed, the sheetrock is finished and textured and the baseboards are in. The inside shelving, rod and drawers are not yet in, though they have primed the shelves.
I also got a shock last Friday when I peaked inside the original coat closet and found that it is no longer deep enough for a rod and hangers. Apparently my expectations for a 6-ft wide bedroom closet and an adjoining hallway closet deep enough for hanging anything was completely unrealistic. Just a complete miscalculation which I cannot account for.
Trim - This is where the focus is this week---getting all the trim up. I'm adding two items to the baseboard throughout the house. My dad found a nice little chair rail-type piece to top off the baseboard, which gives it a lot more charm and elegance. Plus, I'm adding a shoe mould to the bottom of the base.
Any missing chunks of baseboard need to be replaced. And, I am adding crown mould to the tops of all the windows and doorways and to the ceiling.
Walls - For the most part, the walls and ceilings are patched up and textured in every room. We do need to troubleshoot some areas, where bubbles have formed in the top layer of the sheetrock or the wall isn't as smooth or level as it should be
Painting - The painting was supposed to start today, but we started on the door/window moulding instead, so it will likely start tomorrow, which is fine because I picked up my paint selections only today after tons of hand-wringing.
Fireplace and mantel - still gathering the materials for this.
To be fair, I'm making the decisions as I go, some of them not fast enough. And, I have thrown in extra items that were not part of the original plan. Plus, we had to fire the first trim guy, after struggling for a week and half to get him to do things right the first time.
Here's the progress report:
Electrical - Completed. The original quote was for something like 12 additional outlets. I added 40-some outlets, including TV, phone jacks, including cat 5 writing for a LAN line, and general plugs in every room. The existing plugs were either in weird places or not grounded (two-pronged instead of three), or both.
Closets - The doors will need some fine-tuning in the end, but they are up and framed, the sheetrock is finished and textured and the baseboards are in. The inside shelving, rod and drawers are not yet in, though they have primed the shelves.
I also got a shock last Friday when I peaked inside the original coat closet and found that it is no longer deep enough for a rod and hangers. Apparently my expectations for a 6-ft wide bedroom closet and an adjoining hallway closet deep enough for hanging anything was completely unrealistic. Just a complete miscalculation which I cannot account for.
Trim - This is where the focus is this week---getting all the trim up. I'm adding two items to the baseboard throughout the house. My dad found a nice little chair rail-type piece to top off the baseboard, which gives it a lot more charm and elegance. Plus, I'm adding a shoe mould to the bottom of the base.
Any missing chunks of baseboard need to be replaced. And, I am adding crown mould to the tops of all the windows and doorways and to the ceiling.
Walls - For the most part, the walls and ceilings are patched up and textured in every room. We do need to troubleshoot some areas, where bubbles have formed in the top layer of the sheetrock or the wall isn't as smooth or level as it should be
Painting - The painting was supposed to start today, but we started on the door/window moulding instead, so it will likely start tomorrow, which is fine because I picked up my paint selections only today after tons of hand-wringing.
Fireplace and mantel - still gathering the materials for this.
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