Apple green it is! {bonus room paint}

We went to Lowes and got 4 color samples the other night, slapped some squares of paint up on the wall, and checked them out at night then again during the day.

clockwise from top left: Valspar Prairie Brush, Valspar Apple Green, Valspar Garden of Paradise , Olympic Guacamole

After a little debate, G told us her favorite. It was mine, too!!!

Unfortunately for The Hubs, it was the only one he never pegged as a fave (he liked upper left and lower right at night, then lower left during the day). Oh well, he was outnumbered. Honestly, I think I would have been OK with any of the 4 colors, this one just had the most vibrant and fun feel (and its for a toy room so we're going for vibrant and fun).

We got Apple Green color-matched at Sherwin Williams (who by the way have a 30% off paint sale for the rest of 2011) then got to work while little E took her nap.

G was such a trooper and helped out for about 30 minutes before she lost interest and asked if she could "watch mine own show."

No complaints here. I'll happily let the boob tube babysit so we don't have to stay up past midnight painting. Yes. I'm a horrible regular parent.

It's actually all finished but I've got to hang some stuff, rearrange, etc. before the big reveal. And I've got a super cool Pinterest inspired project in the works that will go in this room. Have you done any painting lately? Made any bold changes in your house?

Color scheme {bonus room}

So, we won't be hiring a painter. Whop, whop. We bought a new mattress. A new, guccimattress that blew the paint budget. But, I'm picking out paint colors tonight! Here are a few of the color schemes I'm considering, all courtesy of Design Seeds. You'll notice that the common element in each is GREEN!!! I love green walls and this room is pretty self-contained so we're going for it.

Love these autumnal colors and the 4th shade is very similar to the paint in the hallway outside the bonus room. Plus, that dark, almost black, grey is super awesome!!! However, it might be a little "adult" for what serves mainly as a toy and play space.

I also love the greys in this scheme but our current sofa is more of a taupey beige and might not work with this. We were going to replace it but that aforementioned mattress ate that budget up as well (also some super-lame, and unexpected dental work I had done today). But its speakin' to me with those pinks which would be great for a play space for two sweet little girls.

And this one just makes me hungry. For some Italian. In Italy. Cinque Terre, anyone? Again, love the grey, the white is perfect for the Ikea Expedit shelving we got, and our carpet is a dark brown. Plus, red is a common theme in our house and that accent would give some continuity to this room from the other spaces in the house.

So, what do you think? Any one scheme jumping out at you? I'm leaning toward the the last one but we'll see. I think I'll do some fabric shopping after the room is painted and hopefully that will seal the deal for me.

Bonus Room {it's Go Time}

Now that we're back from our respective jaunts, The Hubs to Qatar and the girls and I to Missouri, it's time to get the bonus room (office, sewing, toy, and craft space) completed. I'll have a floor plan, some very scary before pictures, and my general ideas for you in the next few weeks. We saved up a little extra cash while we were away so we're hiring a painter! Yay!!! For the whole upstairs actually. We have to get a pro in here to do our double story entryway so we just figured we'd have someone else knock the whole thing out for us all at once. Cause let's face it, it would take us 2 months to get the job done with an hour here and there. So, here's the paint I've got picked out for this multi-purpose room...


Its from the Pottery Barn Kids Benjamin Moore Collection and called Central Park. I'll have it color matched at either Lowes or Sherwin Williams and probably go with a satin/eggshell finish for washability. I really feel like green is such a neutral. I mean, flower stems are green and God pairs every color of the rainbow with them so I'm thinking it'll be a nice color for adding some punchy, bright artwork, white storage pieces, and a neutral sofa (probably a sofa bed).

Can't wait to share our progress!!!

You gotta know it! It's electric! Boogie, woogie, woogie!

That's right. It IS electric. What, you ask? The blue paint in my sweet G's room...

Shot from the doorway (excuse the baby bum in the photo. Or enjoy its total stinkin' cuteness. Your choice.).

And a view of the wall with the bed.

Here are the Before shots as a reminder...

I actually really like the color (Valspar Betsy Ross Room/Sea Serenade). I've noticed that G has a headband, some sandals, barrettes, and a couple of shirts this shade. So we've got a trend going I guess. Its strange that even though the color is a bit dark, the room seems so much more light and cheery than it did before. I think you can even see that in the Before and After shots. I know that some artwork, the white shelf/hooks I plan to hang, and some white curtains will really tame it. Plus, the chandelier I have to hang provides a much more pure, white light than this icky stand-in builder fixture. I'm still a little nervous about our bold choice, though. It doesn't help that the hallway outside her door GLOWS blue when her door is open.

But she seems to like it so that's all that matters. I think.

And I'd like to apologize in advance if you are stuck singing this tune all day. I just wanted someone else to be tortured by this horrible (why-is-it-always-played-at-wedding-dances?) song as I have been since Sunday afternoon when we finished the walls.

I've got to mo-oooooove...

I'm going on a party ride!

You may be right! I may be crazy!!!

I often hear Billy Joel playing on repeat in my head. You could say its my theme song. Here are the two new paint samples up on the wall in G's room.

The far left is my first attempt, Behr's Blue Cascade. And, while I decided this was an awesome color, its just too dark for our tiny 10-ish by 10-ish foot space. The middle sample is Valspar Tidal Wave and the one on the right is Valspar Sea Serenade/Betsy Ross House. You can check out the virtual interpretation of them in G's room here. I've decided to go with good ol' Betsy. It is REALLY blue and I think I might be losing my mind but hey, its just paint, right? Right??? (chirp, chirp, cricket, cricket)

Sorry for the 800 posts on this one tiny aspect of her room but I'm really struggling with this. I was thinking about abandoning the Kilim Beige that runs throughout our house in the toy room and going with an light olive-y green but now, not so sure. I don't think picking paint color is a talent that I possess.

On a more exciting note, I've been working on an Ikea shopping list for this weekend. That's right, I'm heading Cali to visit the in-laws (oh, and squeeze in a little NASCAR...what? yeah. I heart NASCAR. Don't hold it against me, ok? I just can't resist. Some of you dvr Real Housewives, others find it therapeutic to scrapbook, me, I just wanna watch cars go in a circle...really fast.). Top priorities for the trip to mini-Scandanavia: curtains for living room, bedding for The G. And, who knows how much other crap-ola many other goodies I'll bring home.

New paint samples for G's room

I showed you the painted sample of Behr's Blue Cascade on G's wall last week. The sample that I thought was much too dark and moody for a sweet, vibrant 3 year-old (although I love the color and highly recommend it if you're going for that sort of thing). And, to do my due diligence I decided a little more ground work was in order before buying another sample. Enter: Lowe's virtual room painter...

Valspar Tropical Mist

Valspar Sea Serenade/Betsy Ross House

You can see the old color samples on the wall which annoyed me at first and I thought about editing them out but then realized that because I felt the color was too dark, this was a good way to ensure that I didn't make that same mistake.

I also put the new Garden Party pillow cases on and removed the dark blue bedspread that had previously been on the bed. This gave me a little more true idea of how the room will look once I find my white matelasse cover. I ended up getting samples of the 2 colors above. What do you think? I'm excited to try them. They're more teal-ish than I had originally planned but I felt that all the more gray-blue colors looked murky which didn't scream 3 year-old either. And, for some reason, the Betsy Ross/Sea Serenade color has 2 names. One online and on the label of the paint can, the other on the store paint chip. Weird. The Lowe's guy didn't understand either. He also thought my almost 7 month-old was GIANORMOUS (he actually used that word). Its all good though because we delight in her pleasant plumpness. He also noted that his (much smaller) 6 month old wasn't nearly as chatty or responsive and active so I took that to mean "Ma'am (yes, I'm embracing it now that I'm well into my 30th year), your supa' fat baby is a genius."

Want a moody, lounge-y blue? I've got one for you!

Taken at night with overhead light fixture

Daytime shot

Well. I'm not sure what I think of the paint. I'm thinking that its too dark. I really like the way in looks in the daylight BUT the shot was taken during the only hour or two that this room gets a lot of sunlight. Mostly, its pretty dreary in here. I don't want sweet girl's room to look moody. She's only 3. I'm sure I'll get plenty of moody when she's 13. Honestly, I love the color, but don't think its right for this space. Bah. Back to the drawing board. Oh, and can you tell that a certain little one helped out with the painting?

I have good taste (and yes, I'm shocked)!!!

I'm not very brave when it comes to picking paint colors. In fact, our new house is the first time I've ever painted a wall of my own. When we moved in it was white, white, white. And not some pretty soft white, contractor's buy-a-giant-vat-of-it-and-put-it-everywhere white. Boring. And a little harsh to look at, if you ask me. So off I went to Sherwin Williams. I came home with over 40 paint swatches and after two days The Hubs and I narrowed it down to 2 different tan/beige colors for the majority of the house. I bought small samples, brought them home, and tried them out.

We went with these two colors in a satin finish:

SW Kilim Beige 6106

SW Nomadic Desert 6107

The top, Kilim Beige, is used in the living room (and is supposed to go upstairs throughout the halls and in our bedroom), as well as on the top half of the dining room wall. We used Nomadic Desert on the bottom half of the dining space and in the kitchen. The slight contrast in the dining room is perfect but I wish it was a little different in the kitchen. But, mostly I'm pretty pleased.

Shot of the dining room with our SU-WEET chair rail (still looking for drapes, then I'll post a before and after of this room!)

Lately I've been regretting not going with something a little more grey but overall, I was good with it. So, before we tackled the upstairs painting, I thought I'd check out the colors those wonderful folks at HGTV had used in the dream home to see if anything struck my fancy (because lets face it. Its. Beau.Ti.Ful). As I was flipping through the colors, lo and behold, they had used my sweet Kilim Beige in the Ski Dorm!!!

I am so excited and so, so, so proud of myself!!! I think I needed this confidence in my color choices to go on with the rest of my painting and choose a color for G's room.

I. Am. Awesome.