Painting before and after photos - round 1
I thought the painted trim alone was pretty transformational (read all about that if you missed it here) but holy smokes... when I saw that fresh white paint hit the walls - especially the goldenrod and the orange - I literally screamed with joy. I finally felt like this was a place I could make my home. I could actually unpack all my decor. Now don't get me wrong, as much as I've been dogging on the orange and yellow, I really am a fan of color. And I love seeing color embraced in other people's homes. I respect people who paint the sunny yellow for the energy it gives. And the orange for the enthusiasm. But in most common areas of my home, I prefer to keep things calm and neutral. We don't have a lot of calm around here - we're all pretty tightly wound - so it helps balance out the energy of our family.
Like I mentioned before, my goal with this initial pass was just to get us started and tone down the wood, but we left quite a lot. I wanted to live in the space for a while before deciding just how much I'd end up painting, or whether I felt like I wanted to do something different. And, even though we vetted out that paint color as good as we could, I wanted to make sure I actually liked it on EVERYTHING. The same paint can look very different in rooms with a lot of daylight compared to rooms without. In rooms on the north vs. rooms on the south. Rooms with cool tone lights vs. rooms with warm tone lights.
Ok, ok, I know - get on with it! Here's our Round One Reveal!
DINING ROOM
We painted the crown, chair and floor trim but left the window and doors to tie things in visually with the remaining woodwork in the house. The wall color was pretty close before, we just brightened it up. I loved how painting over the woodwork opened up this room and in person it feels so much bigger than it is! I'll tackle the chandelier and furniture later. Also, I realized shortly after moving in that there wasn't a single curtain rod installed in the house. Just honeycomb blinds.
Here's our first before and after!
LIVING ROOM
In here, we painted the crown molding up top but left the floor trim wood. The baseboards wrapped into the main open kitchen and hall, but the crown stopped at the edge. I figured painting the floorboards would be easier to do later and I planned to tackle the fireplace myself. That crown was just so thick and heavy, it made that room feel boxed in and short.
KITCHEN
The kitchen just got the wall paint. As much as I would love to simply start over in here, we're going to have to do it in phases to save money. Even though we're trying to lighten everything up, I did lean into some black counter stools for consistency in accents for right now.
FOUR SEASON ROOM
This may have been my favorite change so far! I didn't realize how this yellow was different from the living room yellow originally. I also wasn't sure why they went with the tile in here vs. bringing the hardwoods all the way through from the kitchen. The checkerboard pattern was questionable as well. But once this room was white, I actually kind of liked the floor! And my eyes were drawn not to the walls, but right out the windows where they should be focused. I even kind of like the wood trim in here! WHO AM I?!
ENTRY AND UPSTAIRS HALL
We painted the crown that wrapped the two-story entry and all hall trim upstairs to match. As I said when we shared trim progress I hated the way the crown was stained over the entry but painted over the hall. It was just abrupt. The walls got a fresh coat of paint to match everything else.
MAIN FLOOR BATH
I totally forgot about this little guy. The main floor bathroom was a light sage green, but its special feature is the BLACK toilet! (so random) So right off the yellow and orange main living area, the sage green bath. I didn't hate it, but while the paint was out, we tacked this room on.
We actually painted the front "piano" room too, but didn't get a good photo of that. While I document literally everything in our lives, we weren't blogging yet so now I know to do better. ;)
I was so happy to finally be able to unpack my final boxes and start decorating. And planning my next fix of course...
