It was bound to happen.  There is no way I was going to get away with painting nine rooms (if you count the hall as a room) without making a fatal paint choice error.

I’m painting the living room this week (I’m on vacation, and we are having a housewarming party soon, so I’m anxious to get the public rooms finished.)  I had originally thought that I might paint this room yellow, but the room has a problem.  Problem #1 is that it is a sort of loft area, overlooking the stairwell and flowing into the upstairs hall, so whatever I use has to work in several areas.  Problem #2 is that when the previous owners opened up this room they built a new stairwell… out of yellow pine (the rest of the house is a mix of red oak and tiger oak.)  The yellow pine is crazy orangey, and any sort of warm shade tends to emphasize the orange, and the fact that it does not even match the rest of the stairwell.

I had decided on a sage green, which I thought would look nice with my red sofa and the blue fireplace, and which wouldn’t be overwhelming carried into the hall.  I only got as far as the window before I knew I hated it, but I continued on for another wall to make sure.  Yup… instead of the pretty sage on the card, this color looked like a gray-ish mint on the walls.

This picture actually just looks gray, but trust me that the mint was there.  It’s actually a nice color, but in my opinion it would look better with white trim.  It really gave the room a cold feel, which wasn’t what I wanted for our private living area.

I was sad because I really do love this color, but it isn’t for our home.

I decided to give the leftovers to my Mom, who is repainting her house to sell it, and started going through the huge pile of samples I have amassed, looking for a color that might work.

I threw a few up on the wall:

Yup, I still don’t like yellow.  But that blue… it had possibilities, although it looks a little bland in this photo.  It’s from the Sherwin Williams Arts and Crafts Collection.  The color is “Bunglehouse Blue.”  I decided to go with my instincts, so I went with the blue, which happens to go well with the fireplace.

Perfect!  The darker color makes the wood glow, and this blue contains enough green to avoid feeling cold with the northern light.  I need to learn to go with my instincts – I knew that light colors didn’t look great with our woodwork, but I was worried about the house being a cave.  Strangely enough, dark colors seem to work better with the dark trim.  I think it has to do with the amount of contrast.

While I was painting I discovered what color the room was painted before the owners painted to sell last year – ballerina pink.  Wow… I really cannot imagine thinking that was a good idea, but then these are the same people who repainted to sell using only mint green and butter yellow, and without using any drop cloths on the wood floors.

I had been considering using more muted colors for the bedrooms upstairs (I hope to get to those labor day weekend) but I have changed my mind based on this experience.

These are the colors I picked up today to think about for our bedroom (yes, I know I’m indecisive, you are all thinking “Didn’t she already go through this?”)  I like the two on the far left, Martha Stewart Terrarium and Ralph Lauren Alpine Pool.

The guest room will actually be next, and I am deciding between a Martha color called “chalkboard green” and an eddie bauer color called “bordeaux.”  We will not talk about how many swatches are currently on the walls.  I clearly have a paint problem.

Tomorrow this room will get a second coat (I am so pleased with the coverage of this paint, Sherwin Williams Cashmere) and then I will have a living room again.  I have hardly been able to knit, and I am so close to being finished with Honey.  Last summer I took over a month to complete the Nantucket Jacket because of the wedding, and this summer I am taking ages to finish anything because of the house – it must be something about july and august!  I cannot wait for colder weather…

First things first… have you seen the fall edition from Twist Collective?    I want to make Victoria ,  Linden, and Little Birds, but it’s all gorgeous stuff!  I’m chugging along on the tempest cardi, and I have to say that I really love the yarn (Mountain Colors Bearfoot.)  I am a little worried about size, but it is supposed to be fitted and it is very stretchy, so hopefully it will be ok – just more fitted than a normal cardigan!

We have completed work on the parlor, except for the woodwork, but I don’t have pictures yet because the piano isn’t in yet.  Marc really liked the Sherwin Williams Duration paint, but I was less impressed.  It was very thick, kind of like pudding, and I think it is shinier than an eggshell has any right to be.  Even so, I adore the color, I hope to have photos soon!

In the meantime, we have been turning this:

mmm, hospital green

Into this:

It needs another coat, obviously, and that will be done tonight, but I am so pleased with the color against the woodwork!  This is one of the rooms the previous owners painted right before selling, and I cannot imagine what they were thinking.  That mint doesn’t even go with the beautiful wood tones a little bit.  I get the idea of green with wood (as you’ll see in a minute) but I hate that mint (which is still in my living room, sigh…)  Oh well… their bad taste is our gain, as it kept the house from selling!

I don’t even hate that chandelier as much anymore, which is a relief, we can’t afford new ones yet, because… our condo is back on the market.  The deal fell through because the buyer was going FHA, but the loan people felt that our condo association did not have sufficient savings and they refused to do the loan.  We are (naturally) very disappointed, and it’s frustrating because we aren’t able to start the larger projects in the house (ie the kitchen remodel, which has been moved up the list of important things) until we sell.   We have had several showings this week, so at least there is continued interest, but I really was hoping to be through with it by now.  And with us no longer able to take FHA buyers, it becomes much more difficult to sell in the price range.

But enough gloom – we love our new house, and it was totally worth all this aggravation.  The condo will sell, it will just take longer than I would prefer.  In the meantime, I can focus on painting my house in lovely colors, and we can at least afford the fix the bathroom (we need a new sink and floor, both are in really awful condition.)

Let me show you my colors for upstairs!  The first room is the living room, which was once a small bedroom but was opened up to create an open, loft-like space.  This means that the living room and upstairs hallway will have to be the same color, and I had trouble finding one I liked.  Here is my decision, Citrine, a lovely soft gold.

I would not ordinarily choose a yellow, but it looks lovely with the tiger oak fireplace and my red sofa, not an easy thing to do!

For my bedroom I am leaning towards a gray-ish green called Magnolia.

It goes well with the copper accents I have there, as well as the rose/green marble tiles in the fireplace.

The guest room is also green, this time peridot (I love this color, I was sad it looked icky in my room.)

The guest room gets a ton of light, although it is currently painted entirely in ultra-white ceiling paint (thanks, previous owners!)

The second floor feels very much like a treehouse, which I love (see the living room view below) and I want to use natural colors to emphasize this.

The bathroom is going to be a pale blue/gray called dusk, hopefully to coordinate with the giant stone shower.

The color is less blue and more gray than the photo – the walls are a nasty sort of pastel yellow, which my camera doesn’t like.

The ceilings are also getting repainted upstairs – they did not do a good job, and I don’t like ultra white.  The ceiling in my bedroom is actually peeling, probably a result of the wallpaper that appears to have been removed from the ceiling.

Tonight I get to demo the chair rail in the foyer and start removing wallpaper for my chartreuse foyer.  The kitchen is going to be berry red I think, but that will wait until the renovation.  I thought I could live with the kitchen, but I didn’t realize that half the drawers were unusable or that under the sink was completely disgusting and water damaged.  We’re probably going to install an ikea kitchen, but we will see…