We have a ton of projects on the back-burner, waiting for better weather. A few include new windows, patio door, kitchen remodel, and a continuation of landscape updates from last year. Confident my plants decided to die and not come back this year, but only spring will tell. This means, big bucks being spent. It also means hanging around the house more saving for said bucks.
But...
With all of this time being spent in the house comes itches and scratches of wanting to do things that are more or less in my control.
For example: Repainting the upstairs for the fifth-ish time. I've been sitting on the fact that I wanted to repaint everything upstairs for months now, but was waiting for the perfect opportunity. I got that when Shane left for the weekend. Husband is away, paint brush comes out to play.
Up until a couple weeks ago, we had a combination of Manchester Tan and Shaker Beige splashed across the main living area walls. People change, style changes, preferences change. I know I've mentioned in previous posts that the Manchester Tan was a paint color suggested by one of the specialists at Hirshfield's. Although they are extremely knowledgeable, I was blindly asking a specialist what color to paint my living room, a place she had never been. Color of the year in 2010 was none other than Manchester Tan, so I can understand the suggestion. However, just because it's a beloved tone, doesn't mean it's treasured in this piece of split. Our windows face east and west, and in natural daylight, the color was tolerable. But when the sun started setting, the color took on this I've been smoking three packs a day inside my house yellow. Ishy.
Picking the color was a whole other battle. I researched various colors starting in October, and just wrapped up painting in March. The goal is to never paint our upstairs, like ever again. After reading hundreds of thousands of reviews on cooler paint colors, I settled on Gray Owl. Here is why:
- Gray Owl is dominantly gray with cool, soft, and passive undertones of blue and green. Which means, it looks badass with a variety of wood stains, stainless steel, and creams/whites.
- Gray Owl is a light paint color - It's not light enough to be classified as an off-white, but it's also not a medium hue either. In fact, it's right dab smack in the middle of "light."
- With any light gray, it is susceptible to reflection and can pick up other tones from it's surrounding environment; i.e. If you have a navy accent wall, it's going to pick up the blue. If you have a vintage forest green Chesterfield sofa, your walls are going to appear a bit on the green side.
** An added tip: Pair your Gray Owl walls with trim painted in Super White for a bright pop of freshness. The two colors share similar undertones and go very well together.
As I was saying, we live in a typical split entry home. For our home I used a combination of Eggshell and Flat finishes, and ended up purchasing 1 gallon and three quarts of Flat and 1 gallon of ES. With this amount I was able to paint our downstairs and upstairs hallway, entry, living room, dining room and kitchen space. Whatever color you're covering up plays a huge role in how much paint you're going to need. If you have dark walls, double the amount.
Also, keep in mind that there is a huge difference between the two finishes - Eggshell has great wipe-ability with a bit of a sheen, so imperfections stand out a little more. Flat is great for areas that don't have perfect walls - if your sheetrock is a little wonky, or if you live in a older home with plaster or a lot of imperfections from artwork being hung up over the years.
The way the house was painted with the two finishes was very strategic. The two sheen's weren't mixed, except for one wall on accident. You could see the eggshell punch through the flat. Took a few coats to cover it up.
And without further adieu, a few before and afters of the back breaking work. Don't worry, I'll pat my own back.
The best example can be seen in our entryway - and for the fact that I seem to have the most photos of our tiny entry? For some reason? It's best not to ask.
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| 2015 ish after a new door and railing with Manchester Tan |
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| As seen today with Gray Owl |
No doubt do we have additional improvements to make - more things to hang - more things to paint. But if I had to pick any of these looks, I'd say I'll reveling in the best one yet.
Another semi-decent example is our upstairs hallway. Please disregard the areas I didn't paint when the photo was taken - on second thought, maybe you should take a look so you can compare the yellow dirtiness of the Manchester Tan to the so fresh and so clean, clean Gray Owl.
And finally, a shot of the faux fireplace - that also got a major overall! (Check back soon for this update) You can easily compare the two paint colours. **Photo taken in natural light
Well, I guess that's it as far as photos that capture the impending change. I'm hopeful the frequency of these little posts change, but you can't rush a good thing. As always, thanks for reading!
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