color vs. color

SIDE BY SIDE:



OLD COLOR (IVORY SAMPLER)


NEW COLOR (SAND WHITE) (It's not white!?)

OOPS! COLOR

This color looked a lot better on the swatch and on camera than it actually did on the walls in person. It's hard to tell, but it was actually way too yellow/orange, almost like a terracotta, and not at all what we had envisioned for something called, "ivory sampler."

Too bad, we had painted the entire room in one coat before realizing the nature of this color crisis.

However, a new color has been chosen that is essentially this color, but entirely without all the brass.

The major problem with this yellow color was its way of "highlighting" the flaws of our old plaster walls despite all of our hard work sanding, and smoothing them to perfection. It was also too bright, and too rich, making the room feel very awkward, and not very restful. It also closed in the room a bit too much.

We have since learned from our mistakes.

Here are some photos of the intial color:
(coming up next, visuals of the new color vs. the old color)

Ceiling Paint

We picked up a nifty EZ Track ceiling paint kit by Glidden. (not photographed here, oops!) The paint went on a soft pink color and dried bright white in about 30 minutes. This enabled us to know where the color was going, and see if we missed any spots, which is very easy to do when you are painting a stippled ceiling. We also picked up an adjustable extension for the paint roller. It helped out a lot. We gave the ceiling three coats. It looks great.


Here is Liam painting the ceiling:

Stippled Out

I did successfully get up off the air mattress. I finished the ceiling stippling project by midnight on February 17th. Liam assisted me when he came home from work by wiping smooth all the edges where I got Sheetrock on the walls. The hardest part was maneuvering around the ceiling fan. I can't wait to get rid of that $20 fan and replace it with something much more suitable for a master suite, something perhaps with a nifty remote and 3 speeds and a dimmer!

Anyway, the ceiling has a little more drying to do before I paint it with two coats of ceiling paint. I think it came out quite nice. It's a little more textured than maybe I had envisioned, but I don't care what anyone thinks. It's a lot more interesting than a blank white slightly uneven ceiling with a few cracks. It looks 100% better to me, like icing on the cake. I think it looks very professional.

Here are some photos of all the hard work:

Dear Lamb,

I need a morning coffee.



Well, we're all primed. I am moving on to the "fun stuff." (actually the priming wasn't too boring. I had a cat on my ladder most days, and a cat in the windowsill whilst I painted the windowsill most days.)









I will be stippling the ceiling today as soon as I can get up off the air mattress.


Tools Necessary:

1. horsehair 5" round brush
2. long wooden broomstick thing
3. 62 gallons of sheetrock
4. bucket
5. water
6. rag

I'll let you know how it goes. Don't worry, I feel like I was born for this.

Love,
Your "lil' comedian"

PRIME TIME

I am exhausted. I worked on the master from morning 'til night for the past 6 days. I am happy to report however, that the sanding has come to an end. We've entered into the exciting stage of PRIMING...everything!

The original base molding was in fact salvaged and turned out remarkably nice. I had only hoped that we would see its clean straight lines come through at last. My spackling, puttying, sanding ability exceeded my own expectations.




It has been so gratifying to see the transformation! Splotchy imperfect walls have become a uniform clean, smooth, and white canvas for color.




When all is primed, the ceiling will receive a stipple effect. We picked up a 62 lb bucket of all purpose joint compound for this purpose. I'm excited to use the horsehair 5" round texture brush we also bought. The stipple will dry for 48 hours before receiving 2 coats of ceiling paint.

In the meantime, the base molding and window casings will be painted their true white.

Lastly, everything will be taped off with painters tape in order to paint the walls.

Painting the walls is scheduled for this weekend! (I have a lot of work to do to keep on schedule.)

Progress & Choosing A Color

Liam and I are nearing the time to paint our bedroom. We've decided to scale down our project a little. We were initially going to remove the old base molding and replace it, but we realized that almost everything can be made to look quite nice with a little patience, some spackling with some putty, and some careful sanding here and there. That is how the whole room has come together so far. I also finally came into the understanding that this is an old house, so it is naturally flawed by time and use and that's what makes it so imperfectly charming. Browsing through photos in design inspiration books, such as "Country Living, Cottage Style" I noticed that the old original flawed base molding, and window casings are something of real beauty in older homes. They seem to make a room just that more cosy and inviting when the rest of the room is decorated and painted to perfection. I've begun to fall in love with the flaws of the house, the time told tale of years of living.

Anyway, we have decided that we will finish smoothing and sanding the closet, the base molding, and window casings. Then we will be re-painting and texturing the ceiling. Although, the ceiling is pretty smooth, a subtly textured ceiling will cover any small exisiting imperfections and hide any future ones that always occur with time. It will be the finishing touch on the room.

When all of that is completed, we will be able to paint the very first walls in our house with color. We've chosen the color, "ivory sampler" by Glidden.



It's a soft, clean, warm, medium neutral tone somewhere between taupe brown and muted yellow.

We're excited! We've been sleeping on an air mattress for several weeks during the process.