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…
Green apples - Stitchywitch Creates 
Very lovely, all around. It’s coming along nicely! Sorry to hear about the condo, but you have such a great attitude! I’ll send good selling vibes your way.
I love that bright blue! It looks wonderful! It’s so nice to see all your color choices and that you aren’t afraid of color!
Love your color choices…I have to ask…How/where did you learn to paint? I really want to do my living room but I’m chicken!
It must be really frustrating that the sale fell through, but at least you can focus on your beautiful new house. I LOVE the sapphire blue! I would never have chosen that color and couldn’t quite picture it, but it looks gorgeous in that room! Houses are always full of surprises, some good, some not so good. Hang in there.
Hope your condo sells quickly. Love the sapphire blue!
Love the blue!!!It works so well!!And i hope your condo sells soon.
The blue paint is gorgeous! (Although I may be biased… my kitchen is that color.) I’m glad you are going for bold in your house, the results are turning out great!
The paint so far looks really nice. I might check online for cabinets. Depending on budget I saw some really nice ones at kraftmaid and thomasville. Also if you like Asian influenced stuff
http://www.greenteadesign.com has some amazing work.
I love the blue paint. We used a similar colour in our old house, with white skirting boards, white plaster cornice and ceiling. It looked great! It was a UK Dulux colour called Martian Skies 2. I’d love to use it again one day – we’re renting at the moment though.
Something we used to do when using strong colours was to use at least one coat of cheap white emulsion as an undercoat. It helps the final colour look it’s best.
I also have ikea-cupboards in my kitchen und I love them. I think you will really enjoy cooking in this kitchen. The cupboard are easy to assemble. Much easier then the well-known bookshelfs. I wish you good luck with selling your condo.
Having just renovated my kitchen, I can tell you that IKEA stuff isn’t much less expensive than “real” cabinets, and I’ve heard that the boxes are often incomplete and you have to scramble to get all of the parts. Check out the Thomasville cabinets at Home Depot. They’re real wood and you’ll be able to find the perfect style and finish to go with your home. Plus, there are often deals running where you can get things like free drawer upgrades or free sink bases (we got both and it saved about $1000).
Your house is absolutely gorgeous!
Love the paint colors. That is one of my favorite parts of a rahab. You might try SW Cashmere- I used it in my second floor. I really like the Behr flat enamel it’s the one with the green and white label-used it in the first floor all 7 rooms. For our kitchen we used kraftmaid cabinets and stacked them so they really look like they have been here for years-finished the top-ceiling edge with a large crown purchased at wood mizer(portable saw mill place) they have great stuff much cheaper than the cabinet maker or hardware store. It’s a custom look with a box cabinet price.
How’s the Dr. Elsays working out for you? Have a great weekend.
Love the sapphire blue as well! One thing you might consider (if you’re not doing it already): tinted primer. You have so many dark, jewel toned shades and if you start out with a tinted primer you’ll get the desired shade level with less coats of paint. We learned this the hard way in our old house: it took 5 coats of paint to match the “Cabernet” red paint swatch we chose for our foyer! In the bedroom, however, we used tinted primer and then applied our “Merlot” (a deep purple) top coat. Matched the swatch in the regular ‘ol two coat process (we probably could have gotten away with one, but I’m fussy….)
Have fun improving your gorgeous house!
I love the colors! I’m looking forward to seeing the kitchen, and the rest of the rooms after the second coat.
I had a question, and I was wondering if you could help. There was a sweater pattern that I’m looking for from several years ago (at least two, possibly three). Of course, I saw it in an afternoon flipping through books in a yarn shop in a faraway town, so I can’t even think of what to suggest. I was hoping you might know it from the description:
It is a deep spring green tunic sweater with a vine pattern up one arm that has openwork around the leaves (definitely skin showing). I believe it had an off-center neck, possibly with more vining. The model probably had red hair, and was posing outdoors next to a treetrunk. I know, that’s horribly specific, but I was hoping it might ring some bells.
Er, after I went through the trouble of trying to describe it, I finally found it. It’s the Lace Leaf Pullover by Teva Durham from Interweave summer 2005. The sweater I was describing was *cough* the changes I had wanted to make to this sweater.
I am completely in love with the sapphire room; it’s gorgeous!! I hope one day I have a room like that. 🙂 You’ve done a great job at choosing colours, your home is going to be remarkable and happy once you’re all done!
I hope your condo sells soon.
That blue looks just lovely!!
As for the chandelier, if you aren’t going to replace it right away, have you thought of giving it a revamp? We did this in our old apartment (the landlord didn’t mind) and it made it look a ton better (it was very similar to yours) We painted the gold metal areas white with a special spraypaint that works well on metal, and then we replaced the glass light covers with new more modern ones. We just took the old ones to the hardware store and found others the same size. Hope that helps. 🙂
Hi – was wondering what paint you used for the sapphire blue – it looks stunning!