Facelift

After completing our Master Bath Remodel, we took a few months off home from improvement projects. We wanted to enjoy the holidays, and just weren't quite ready to bite off our next big project- the kitchen. However, we knew that we eventually wanted to repaint the entire living area (we have an open floor plan) and kitchen, and figured that was a fairly easy ongoing project to handle.

We absolutely LOVE the Gray Owl color that we used in our bathroom remodel, and I wanted that same cool tone to flow through the rest of the house. I've mentioned before that we have a lot of brown. Brown couch, neutral taupe walls, brown furniture...at least 10 different shades of brown all over the place, and it drives me crazy. I'm a blue person, and it's my personal mission to set a new tone in the house. Thankfully, Hank is on board with the plan. So bring on some more Gray Owl!!!

Instead of shelling out big bucks for Benjamin Moore paint, we took advantage of a sale at Lowe's and bought the Valspar brand (color matched) for a whole lot less. Hank tested out a small patch first to make sure we liked the quality, and luckily it worked just fine. It should end up costing about half as much going with this brand, and our budget really likes the sound of that!

One thing that we aren't good at is taking before pictures. We tend to act fast on getting projects started, and that usually results in forgetting to document how things look. So the picture below is the "we're halfway through" before picture. Meet our entry hall:

When Hank started painting the wall around the front door, the windows that you see were actually covered in a frosted film. The (not so attractive) light fixture that you see doesn't really provide a lot of light. So the result is that it's a pretty dark entry way, when really it should be bright and cheery. After all, it's a visitor's first impression of your home, and ours wasn't doing us a lot of favors.

So Hank started peeling away the frosted film, and hallelujah we had light! The plan for this space includes: finish painting (all the cutting in will be my job), repaint the door white, replace the door knobs, and replace the light fixture (with something like this). We have a little desk and chair that belonged to my grandmother that goes in the space where the wall plug is- and it needs some updating as far as the knick knacks that go on it. But I think once all of the above is done, we will have a very inviting entry space into our home.

We've made some good progress getting the front half of the house painted, and already it makes such a difference. The color is like a breath of fresh air, and I can't wait to get the rest of it done. With each wall that gets painted though, the laundry list of additional changes I want to make grows.

Here is my wish list:

repaint our big brown china hutch
hang new curtains by the dining table
get a new dining table- something a little more farmhouse style
replace the light fixture above the dining table
add canned lights to the living area
get new pillows for the big brown couch (it's staying for awhile, but I can live with that)

Until then, I'll continue to be happy with the little facelift that's currently taking place. It has taken years off the house so far. :)

New color on the left, old color on the right