Painting with all the Colors of the Wind

Hello Chickens!

Things are cranking along over here, so I thought I would give you a brief update...I'll be doing another video walk-thru in the next day or so, because things are HOPPING, and frankly, you don't want to have to read a zillion flowery words about my new windowsills or doorstoppers or how much I suddenly love plinth blocks.

But I did want to share something important with you all, because I know one of the things I loathe about the interwebs is this sense that everyone's life is either insanely perfect or a constant hot mess, with little in-between.  Except I think most of us live most of the time in the in-between, I know I do.  Has our renovation gone scarily smoothly so far, all things considered (knocking on things), yep.  Thank goodness.  Have we had the occasional snafu?  Absolutely.  (SEE MOAT)  But I'm not here to make you think that renovations are a lovely little bit of delightful, nor a constant source of horrible.  They are mostly in-between.

So this is my in-between update.

We are painting.  And by we, I mean the very nice team of guys who are actually painting right this moment while I stay safely and smartly upstairs where I don't ruin anything.  Remember all of our conversation about the ins and outs of paint?  And how excited we were to have our palette all picked out? 

So, here is how we are doing (please excuse terrible photography):

This is the hallway!  We are so excited at this bright white space, the Superwhite color looks really nice and wide and tall, and doesn't feel dungeony or basementy at all, which is what we were going for.  The trim is all in the same color, just in Cashmere Pearl finish instead of satin, and it is ready to get its second coat.  Gorgeous.

This is the passthru from the media room, which leads to the wine cellar and the exercise room.  (exercise is thirsty work, you know, so we thought proximity to refreshments would be a good idea!)  You can see how the Ceiling Bright White stays white even though the walls are dark.  Genius technology, that.  The room doesn't feel cave-like at all, despite that Peppercorn paint on the walls.  I love how the white trim makes it pop, and the wine cellar door, which is the only door in the basement that is stained instead of painted, looks fantastic!  We picked Sherwin-Williams Red Mahogany stain for that door as well as all of the trim on the windows, and it is such a close match to the original stained woodwork on the upper floors that the house will feel pretty seamless.

Can you love a soffit?  I do.  This one.  This is in the exercise room, which has a curved wall, so our contractor made the soffit curved to match.  I love how the Peppercorn plays off the white ceiling and the brick and stone.

And then this happened.

Remember the very awesome grown-up sophisticated elegant pink I wanted for the bedrooms?

Remember how I counseled you all to do samples of many versions of paint colors you want in your rooms before buying paint?  Do you recall how excited I was that Sherwin-Williams will let someone order 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of sample paints for just this decision making process?

Yeah, that in-between thing?

What is not as clear here as I might like it to be is the truly horrible a-My Pretty Pony-ballerina-threw-up-fairydust-and-strawberry-Quik-in-here color that is on these walls.  Looking at these pictures you might think we are fairly close.  You would be mistaken.  These colors are Blush and Bashful.  Disney would clothe a stepsister in them.

EPIC FAIL.

So, today I have called my guy Dennis over at the Sherwin-Williams store and ordered two quarts of new sample colors that the painters will slap up in hopes that we can find something that doesn't look like I've covered the bedroom walls in Calamine lotion.  The good news is that they are currently running a 40% off promotion, so if you need some paint, now is the time to do it!

Stay tuned, I will keep you updated on all the good, the bad, and the in-between.

Yours in (usually) Good Taste,
The Polymath