Sunday, January 9, 2011

Colorful Decisions

I don't know about you but I had a very productive Saturday! I can't wait to show you all what I did once it's all done. But, for now, let's talk about the bigger picture ...

When we first bought our house, I couldn't wait to get in it and make it my own. The house was built in 1985, and the main reason we bought it was because it was in such great condition. Still, it needed a few cosmetic updates to make it more of our style.

So, the first thing I started talking about was paint colors. Our home is average size with three bedrooms, two baths, a living room, dining room, sun room and kitchen. Our living room has original wood paneling. 


Currently, the bedroom and kitchen are both green. 


The dining room is lavender, which is a color I knew had to change.


Everything else is pretty neutral. Still, I really wanted to change it up a bit with a few new colors.

Most people talk about how paint is one of the easiest and most inexpensive ways to change a room. Painting shouldn't be a big deal, but Landon and I haven't had the easiest time painting. See, our last home in Nashville was great. The living room and kitchen was an open layout, but as a result, it had tall ceilings - up to 15 feet in parts. In addition, the color we chose needed two coats, on top of a primer. So, we started painting at the beginning of January and two months later, we finished. Yes, you heard me right - TWO MONTHS. I've never been so tired of painting in my life! So, painting is a big deal to us.

Well, I thought I knew what colors I wanted for my new house, but after just a month of talking about it, I had already changed my mind a few times. Because of our painting history, Landon wanted me to be completely sure of what I wanted before we pulled out the paint brushes again.

As I was reading the Young House Love blog, I noticed they had an entire post on creating a color palette for your home. I thought it was a great idea and so did Landon, who gave me a challenge to create a master plan for the our house.

After grabbing hundreds of paint chips (ok, that might be an exaggeration), I've finally made up my mind. Here's "The Cole Color Palette" ...

Dining Room
Walls
Granite Grey (Glidden)
Accent Colors
Seal Grey (Glidden)

Vintage Yellow (Glidden)
Dusty Gold (Glidden)
Kitchen
Walls
Mountain Haze (Behr)

Accent Colors
Polar Bear (Behr) - this looks blue, which is weird, since it's clearly white!
Candy Apple (Glidden)

Master Bedroom
Walls
Contemplation (Behr)
 Accent Colors
Antique Beige (Glidden)
Olivewood (Glidden)

Second Bedroom / Office
Walls
Natural Linen (Glidden)




Sea Spray (Glidden) - I'll explain where this color will come in, in a later post

The sun room and bathrooms are already about this color, which we're going to keep:

And the guest bedroom and hallway is about this color, which we'll also keep:

I've yet to decide whether I want to paint the wood paneling in the living room. I know the "in" thing is to paint it, but I also know that once I paint it, there is no turning back.

What do you think? I'm not sure these pics show the colors like they look on the paint chips. We're still planning to buy some samples of each color to throw up on the wall before painting the entire room, but I think we're off to a good start.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

You have a lot of wood in the living room. Have you thought about covering one wall as an accent or pickling the room. Pickling gives a whitewashed or weathered look but the wood grain still shows through. Rugs on the floor will also soften the wood. By the way I love the office in the closet. Thanks Joy Power

Kristin said...

Thanks, Joy! I have thought about painting but not pickling. Matter of fact, I don't know much about it, so I'll have to do some research.

As far as a rug goes, I'd love to add one, but I'm scared my dogs will mess it up. They are well-trained, but we leave them out while we are gone and on occasions where they have to go and we aren't home, they tend to use my rugs!