As
the name and description suggest, Home Happy is our little slice of the
internet where we can chat about all things home, family, and any other randomness
that sparks my creativity. So while it’s
definitely an overstatement that my milkshake will get you here, perhaps my
craziness will keep you. Between two
toddler boys, a husband, a new house, working full time, managing this blog,
running our household, and updating the house, things are a bit chaotic at
times. But it’s my chaos and I wouldn’t
trade for the world.
{Oh,
and make sure you check out the About Us section of the site to get a feel for what
sparked this blog’s creation.}
On
a dark and stormy night (literally), I decided to tackle my first project –
painting the dining room. I decided to
tackle it right away since it’s the first room you see when you enter our house. I feel like it sort of sets the tone for the
home and I wasn’t really digging its literal color tone, if ya feel me.
BEFORE - looking in from the foyer
BEFORE - standing in the corner looking out towards foyer
(Don’t mind the Sebastian photo bomb.)
The
space has great charm with its lovely white dental molding, wainscoting, and
baseboards. However, the maroon on the
walls left a bit to be desired. Don’t
get me wrong – maroon is a great color and in fact our last house’s living room
was painted that color, but it just wasn’t right for this space in my
opinion. And I stress “my opinion”
because Eric really liked the color and needed a bit of cajoling to entertain the
idea of an alternate color. My argument
was that the space isn’t huge once you took into account our large walnut
buffet (which Eric designed and built himself – woot woot!), our dining set,
and the fact that there’s not a ton of light with only one set of windows in
there. It sort of felt like the dark
walls were closing in on you.
After
a few weeks of nagging convincing him something lighter was key, I began my color search. I ran the gamut of thinking I wanted a soft green,
then a blue, and then a beige until I finally landed on wanting a soft
gray. Gray would be neutral enough to
allow me to switch up the décor from time to time without having to repaint,
yet still complement the white trim nicely.
As for the specific color – that’s always the hardest part for me. I was notorious in our last house for
selecting wrong color tones and repainting, so I’m forcing myself to make a
concerted effort to be more thoughtful and calculated in my decisions this time
around.
That
said, I stocked up on a ton of gray paint chips from Home Depot and taped them
up on the wall for a couple days to narrow down the choices and see how they
looked in different lighting throughout the day. Enter Behr’s Silver Screen in a semi-gloss
sheen. It was just the right amount of
gray; not too dark and not too light.
Just like Goldilocks’ porridge. (Sidebar:
I’m a big fan of the semi-gloss sheen for a lot of projects. It’s kid friendly, very wipeable/cleanable,
and generally just looks really nice.)
Here’s
the breakdown of how things rolled:
Step 1: Move buffet out
from the wall and fill nail holes. There
was a fair amount of holes from the previous owners, so I just scooped up our
spackle and putty knife I already had on hand and went to town. This went really fast – probably about ten
minutes and then another 30 minutes to dry.
I did a careful job of filling the holes and scraping off the excess to
avoid having to sand. It worked
well. Phew. Sanding is easily one of my least favorite
tasks.
Step 2: Prime. With such a dark tone, priming was a
must. I selected Kilz brand primer since
I’ve had great success with its coverage in the past. It’s relatively inexpensive and readily
available at most hardware stores. But here’s
where things got real. About 20 minutes
into priming, a storm knocked out the power.
And it was already late into the evening, so it was dark. Awesome.
Do I forge ahead or close up shop for the night? Well, forge ahead naturally! Since it was just a primer coat, I figured I
couldn’t mess up toooo badly since the coverage didn’t have to be spot on.
Step 3: Light candles. By coincidence, you’ll notice in one of the
before pics I already had a candle on the table, so I just needed to grab a few
more. And let me note that I used a
flash to get that above picture. Here’s
a side-by-side of the same shot with and without flash so you can get an idea
of JUST.HOW.DARK. it was in there. But I
hate having to stop something when I’m on a roll, so it was prime or bust. I’m crazy like that.
Step 4: More primer. The next day it was obvious it could use one
more coat of primer just to be sure the maroon didn’t bleed through. Thankfully, Mother Nature cooperated and the
power remained intact.
Step 5: Paint. I grabbed my gallon of Behr’s Silver Screen
and got to work. It went relatively fast
and I only needed one coat due my second coat of primer really doing its job. I don’t have an in progress photo, but I was
a little worried as I was painting that the color looked too light/white. But low and behold by the morning when it was
fully dried, it had just the right amount of color I was looking for.
Step 6: Update light
switch. This was unplanned but worked
out well. During any paint project I
remove all light and outlet cover plates.
Well, the cover plate for the dimmer switch was being difficult and
wouldn’t free itself from the plate so we had to use some muscle to force it
off. This broke it in the process, but
the good news is that we already knew we wanted to replace the switch with a
more updated look (and one with better dimmer control). Plus, the dial knob itself was a bit wobbly
to begin with, so we didn’t feel too bad not being able to donate it.
And now for the side-by-side money
shots to see the transformation:
And
that’s a wrap. It feels so much lighter,
brighter, and airy feeling now. And even
more so in person…let me apologize for the crappy iPhone camera pics. I was a bit rushed and was having
difficulties getting either of our better cameras to work for me. Photography is much more Eric’s expertise. The second after pic makes the foyer paint
look yellow, too, when it’s really not.
It’s beige with yellow undertones perhaps, but not near what it seems
here. Oh well.
Also
noteworthy: Eric agrees the room looks/feels bigger and brighter, so I can
mark this in the “I was right” category. ;)
Total Project Cost: $67
One
gallon Kilz primer: $19
One
gallon Behr Silver Screen paint, semi-gloss: $26
Paint
rollers & disposable paint tray liners: $11
Paint
brush {for cutting in along ceiling, chair rail, etc}: $0, already had one
Spackle
{for nail holes}: $0, already had some
Dimmer
switch: $11
*You
might notice I don’t account for painter’s tape. I usually just use a paint brush and
carefully cut in around ceilings, trim, etc.
I find I get a crisper line that way.
I
have many other to-do dreams for this room…new rug, new artwork (art above
the buffet in after shots is just a temp solution), do something with the light
fixture (spray paint and add a drum shade?), replace old window treatment
hardware (and add a roman shade?), decorate buffet, and paint entire window
seat area to match the other white trim.
So this room is far from complete, but at least it feels better for
now.
I
hope you enjoyed our first date and you don’t dodge my standard issue follow-up
phone call approximately two days from now.
At least I think that’s what the kids are still doing these days? Oh wait, it’s probably a text. Cheers!
Anne
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