Color, and Current Perspective

Wow, much time has passed since my last post. I have been finishing up my painting projects. I had planned to paint the entire interior this summer, but everything takes much longer than I think it will. I had to patch, sand and prime every wall. The previous owner was a smoker, and I wasn't able to get rid of the smell by cleaning. The guy at Booma's paint store said I should use an oil-based primer to lock in the odor. What a mess that makes, both going on the walls and coming off the brush.

I learned that I am attracted to bright, cool colors, so I have to look at the range of colors on the swatches in order to pick a tone that doesn't make my house look freakish. Some people think some of the colors are too bright. It's basically a very personal choice, isn't it? While I love the look of the current trend of neutral walls in the brown family, it's not for me. So . . . my colors are:

Parlor - Rustic Life in Watermelon (Waverley wallpaper)
Office - Antique Lilac (Devoe)
Master Bedroom - Aquatic Mist (American Tradition)
Kitchen - Canton Jade (Behr)
Living Room - Cucumber (Sherwin Williams)
Dining Room - Pale Daffodil (Behr)
Hallway - Neighborly Peach (Sherwin Williams)
Guest Bedroom - Airy (Behr)
Bathroom - a to-be-determined shade of pink

I will post pictures soon.

Picking the green for the living room was a major endeavor. I went through six samples, which were too minty, too yellow, too bright, too dark, too blue and too lime-y. All I wanted was a pale, soft green but it was so hard to get the right shade! Finally a young lady at Sherwin Williams helped me with that and with the peach for the hallway. I haven't painted the bathroom, guest bedroom or hallway yet, but everything else is done.

I finally finished the closet in the living room, which was torture because I could barely fit my body inside it. I also had to paint around some shelves and the shelf brackets, which also slowed me down. The plaster was in fairly bad shape, with holes and separated corners. I wonder if wallpaper was used a lot in the 1800's to hide the condition of the walls. The wallpaper was fairly easy to remove except for the sections that had been painted over.

I hired a wallpaper guy to do the parlor. He did an excellent job. He told me that in one corner my walls were off by two and one-half inches! No wonder I had trouble when I attempted the wallpapering. I figured the wallpaper cost too much to waste a lot, so I hired him. It cost 490 dollars for about eight hours of work, but he worked very hard and was very precise and careful.

Perfectionist that I am, it's been depressing to see small hairline cracks in the walls I've already primed and/or painted.

Next on the schedule is refinishing my floors, which are mostly devoid of any finish. I was told by a refinishing company that I should probably do that before I paint the baseboards.

I will work on the horrendous task of paint removal for cornice moldings, trimwork, doors and windows when I finish painting the remaining rooms.

Next summer I will concentrate once again on the yard, which seems so unwieldly to me at times. It's not large but I only have so much energy to spare on weekends to complete various lawn maintenance tasks. More on that later.