Posted
August 16, 2010 by
deb under
Before & After Happy Monday everyone! Did you have a fun weekend? I sure hope so. My husband was back in town over the weekend and we hung all over each other all weekend. It’s like we were in college all over again.
I had a short list of honey-do’s for him and it included helping me hang a couple things in our laundry room. About a month ago, I mentioned how I was going to paint my laundry room. And by golly, I did.
Here is the before picture.
The paint was an unwashable flat paint that wasn’t tolerating my 2 year old and boxer dog very well. {On a side note, did you know that Sherwin Williams makes a washable flat paint? Genius, I tell you}.
In choosing a color, I knew I wanted something subtle and refreshing. I started thinking some some blues would be nice, but in trying to keep a halfway consistent color palette throughout the house, I leaned towards a green color.
Here is the after picture:
You’ll have to excuse my flashy pictures, but they were taken late last night. The paint color I choose is Sherwin Williams Grassland {SW 6163}. As I was painting, I feared that I had gone too minty, but luckly I stuck with it as I think it has a very calming character to it – which is the exact thing I wanted!
A couple of details on the wall hangings. I found the mirror at a local thrift store for $10. This is what it looked like when I bought it:
As much as I love a touch of gold these days, this was a little much so I spray painted it white. As you know, I have a tendency to paint everything white.
And when we were shopping at Target this last week, I found this coat hanger on clearance for $9.
Only, when I checked out, it rang up at about $3.50. Don’t you just love it when that happens? I knew the blue color wouldn’t work, but I could easily spray paint it white, and save a few bucks. {The competing coat hanger was $20 and it had a shelf above the hangers}.
A couple simple changes and my laundry room feels brand new! And all for a reasonable cost of about $40!
Tags: laundry room, paint, white
Posted
July 5, 2010 by
deb under
DIY,
How to,
Tutorial In honor of my painting weekend, I thought I’d repost this painting tutorial for you. Enjoy and I hope your having a great 4th of July weekend!
Do you have a room that needs to be painted, but you don’t know where to start? Never fear, we are here and will show you how to paint a room step by step. We’ll start with the supplies needed and how to prep your room so it’s ready for paint.
Step 2: Paint a swatch (or two, or three!) to make sure you like the color before you invest time into painting the entire space. I usually paint about a 1′x1′ square on the wall and revisit it after it drys to make sure I like it.
Step 3: Remove all hardware from the room- i.e. light switches, vents and plugs, etc.
Step 4: Spackle holes that you no longer need and patch any repairs on the walls.
Step 5: Use the 1.5″ masking tape and tape to baseboards, door/closet trim. Use this to cover up any woodwork that you don’t want the paint to get on.
Step 6: Sand the entirety of the room. Not only the spackled areas, but the rest of the walls too. This ensures a smooth finish to your final paint job.
Step 7: Use a old towel to remove any dust left by the sanding.
Now that we have all of our supplies and have done all the prep work to our space, we are ready to paint. Do you have trouble painting with a brush and making sure your lines are straight? I will be giving some pointers on what works for me and how I keep my lines straight.
Steps 8 & 9: Open paint & stir. You want to be sure to stir the paint really good so it is consistent throughout.
Steps 10 & 11: Pour the paint into two different paint pans. I use a large paint pan for the roller and a small container for the brush- just make sure it’s wider than the brush.
Step 12: Start with your paint brush in one corner. Notice how I’m holding the brush and it’s at an angle {this is called cutting}. Angle the brush so it comes to a point and slowly work your way to the top of the corner where the ceiling and walls meet.
Step 13: Most ceilings have a slight lip which makes for slightly easier painting with your brush. Use this lip to guide you. Again, look how I am holding the brush. I angle it to make my way toward the ceiling lip.
Step 14: One I have the paint brush where I want it, I start dragging it along (but under) the ceiling lip. I usually drag the brush for about 12″-18″ depending on how loaded my brush is with paint.
Step 15: I go back over the section I painted in the previous steps to make sure my paint coverage is good and there aren’t any places I missed. I usually leave about a 2.5″-3″ paint line on the top and bottom of the wall to provide sufficient clearance for the roller.
Step 16: Paint along the baseboards in the same section that you painted the ceiling. The baseboards are a little more simple as there is tape there protecting the wood. However, don’t overload your brush with paint. If you have too much paint, it will start to bleed underneath the tape.
After you have gone along the wall with the paint brush for about 4′-5′, the roller can start rolling.
Steps 17 & 18: Start about half way down the wall with short rolling strokes in the letter of a N or M. Then start to straighten and lengthen your rolling strides. Be sure to watch for ridges that are coming from your paint roller and flatten them as you go. Get as close to the corners and ceilings as you can without scraping them.
Step 19: Remove all masking tape from the trim as soon as you are done painting.
Enjoy your new paint job, now it’s time to decorate!
Paint is by Behr and is called Mediterranean Blue.
Tags: cutting, how to paint, paint, prep
Posted
March 30, 2010 by
erin under
Inspiration Now is a great time if you’ve been needing to repaint the exterior of your home! Perfect spring weather and not too hot to spend extended amounts of time in the sun. Need some inspiration? Here are a few exterior paint jobs that are great palettes!
Tags: exterior, paint
Posted
November 4, 2009 by
erin under
Design Basics Last night I had the opportunity to hear Mary Hoffman, a Color and Design Specialist for Benjamin Moore! I heard a little bit about Benjamin Moore and their process for choosing their color palettes for the year.
This is one of their color palettes for next year. I love the European feel to it! Very clean, chic, and contemporary!
I absolutely love color theory and anything having to do with color. I find it fascinating that they forecast the colors about 2-3 years out. So yep, back in 2007 they forecasted that purple would be big this year…and sure enough, we’re seeing purple everywhere now!
To choose the color palettes they come up with a theme (or a few themes). The particular color palette above was based on Ingenuity. They saw that designers would be using color in unconventional palettes. Their other palettes were based off of New Luxury and Genesis. The New Luxury color palette featured rich purples, yellows, oranges, and darker bronze neutrals. Almost Eastern inspired. Their Genesis palette featured a much more monochromatic palette which focused on colors found in nature. Texture was a big factor in this particular color palette to provide some relief from the monochromatic colors.
She talked some about their paint (which I’ll share later) but she hid paint chips throughout the store (Pottery Barn) and made it a game of finding them. She was showing some colors that coordinated, and some new color palettes we would start to see next year. Mary mentioned that along with more purple next year we’d start to see navy pop up again. (You heard it here first folks!) Here are some of the paint chips I found in the store:
We’ve seen a lot of yellow, grey, white color combinations, but pinks will be added to the palette next year too.
Love how this gorgeous green provides a soft feeling to all the dark wood tones.
Here’s some more purple! Love it with the neutrals and metallics!
Be sure to check out their site! They’ve got lots of great resources and inspiration photos too!
Tags: color, paint, trends
Posted
June 30, 2009 by
erin under
Pretty Stuff I think that many times staircases get overlooked in a homes’ design. Here are some that make a statement all their own!
Source
I love this one because of the dual purpose it serves. Not only is it stairs, but it provides tons of storage space and makes for an interesting design element. (Yes, there are no handrails so based on where it is and whose living in the home it might be against code to build with no handrails.)
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This one’s beautiful natural materials speak for themselves!
Source
This stair design, at first glance is just a standard wooden staircase. But all the risers are actually drawers! Ingenious! This is in my file for ideas for my own dream home!
Shawna’s Stair Redesign via Homebug. Another awesome idea! These stairs were carpeted. She removed the carpet, painted the treads and wallpapered the risers. Absolutely gorgeous and such clean design!
Apartment Therapy Boston
I love painted runners on staircases. It’s a quick way to add a color accent. Imagine how boring this home would be without that simple painted blue runner!
Ok, I have so many more awesome stairs bookmarked so I think I’ll save some more for later!
**Don’t forget to enter our current design challenge! See here for details and the submission form! There’s an awesome headboard up for grabs to the winner thanks to BedroomFurniture.com!
Tags: paint, stairs, storage, wallpaper, wooden
