Then Came Color

The newly refinished floors have been protected with Kraft paper:

Paint colors have been selected:

And our painters have arrived:

So, it’s time to get some color on the walls!

For the record, it’s most definitely easier to paint when you don’t have to worry about protecting your floors. However, we tried to tackle as much as possible but only managed to get the living room, stairwell, upstairs hallway and kids’ bedrooms finished. I know, we got close to finishing but failed to get to the master bedroom, dining room and bathroom done (even though the bathroom doesn’t have hardwood flooring so we weren’t making that room a priority). Not to mention the fact that only the kids’ rooms got the full two coats and we still have to paint ALL of the trim in the house! Oh well, we pushed as hard as we could. In all fairness to us, Pavlo was working on installing trim around the house while I focused on painting. Fortunately, we have been blessed with incredibly cooperative and easy going kids (most of the time at least) so for the last couple of weeks I would go over after nap time and paint for just a few hours. We found out quickly that 2-3 hours was the maximum amount of painting time I could squeeze in with the kids before one (or all) of us had a meltdown!

Now for the painting that we were actually able to accomplish prior to the floor refinishing. For the living room, stairwell and upstairs hallway I chose Sherwin Williams’ “Ivoire.”

Landon’s room was painted in Sherwin Williams’ “Sleepy Blue.” The best part about this room was that Landon and Colette joined in on the painting fun (as seen in the picture of them above).

Landon was incredibly careful while Colette, on the other hand, literally dumped her hand in the gallon of paint as soon as the lid came off. That resulted in some tears.

After she was cleaned up she did end up helping…a little.

Thankfully she was quickly distracted by her toys!

In the end, the room came together and looks beautiful.

Then came Colette’s, cheerful green room (“Shagreen” by Sherwin Williams). I think she really likes it because every time we walk it she says, “woooow” and gives us a big smile. Just with that response I’d say her room is also a success.

With the kids’ rooms completed and the living room/stairwell/upstairs hallway in need of just a second coat (we’re waiting to do it until all the trim is done and caulked) we had to throw in the towel and hold off any more painting until after we could walk on the newly refinished floors again. Once that day came we were back at it and, as I said earlier in this post, the floors were protected allowing us to whip out the paint and rollers again.

Since being able to start up the painting again I’ve completed the dining room and it’s ceiling. It was painted in Sherwin Williams’ “Anew Gray” while the ceiling was painted two shades lighter in “Incredible White.”

I’ve never added color to a ceiling (usually just paint them a crisp, flat white) but after hearing that Oprah has every ceiling in her house painted something other than white (and different colors in each room), I thought I’d give it a try! I mean, if Oprah’s designers like Nate Berkus think it’s amazing then there must be something to it, right? At any rate, although I like the fact that the dining room is already a little different with it’s colored ceilings, I have to admit that I have some other ideas for the ceiling in this room to add even more dimension. More on that some other time though, I’m still trying to gather together all of my thoughts and ideas for it.

In addition to the dining room I’ve only been able to get through a portion of the painting in the master bedroom. I’m hoping to wrap it up either later today or tomorrow so I’ll be back soon with updates on that room and on some progress Pavlo made with the trim around the fireplace this weekend. Just so you know, it’s looking really good!

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