Progress, Paint & Plans

Hows that for an alliteration? Might be my favorite one because it means our house is being put back together! Last post I left off with a home without floors and off-white flat walls and removing the dining room wallpaper. Today, we’re sharing some of the progress made on the first floor and some of our paint choices so far!

A little “before” action to start off : )

Now, let’s start out with paint. M and I picked most of our colors from Benjamin Moore swatches and had them color matched at Home Depot into Glidden Duo paint (have had great experiences so far!). The funny (to me) story is that we went, grabbed about a million swatches, took them home, and narrowed it down.

Isn’t that a hoot? Just kidding… I’m here all night. The funny part is that while I am a Pinterest addict, M has never clicked to the site in his life. The colors he picked out as his favorites… Revere Pewter, Edgecomb Gray, Stonington Gray and Hale Navy. I kid you not. Either the man has an eye for what people will pin on Pinterest and he should be in charge of all Sypsie social media from this point forward, or those colors really are that pretty and the popularity is well deserved.

So, here is our master plan for the rooms on the first floor. I love how neutrals play together and how different undertones allow you to put different colors in adjoining rooms without them looking choppy. We also added in the navy tones and are using it as a neutral throughout the house.

We decided that the entry way and family room will be Stonington Gray, the living room and kitchen will be Revere Pewter, while the dining room will be the dark, moody, beautiful Hale Navy. We decided to keep that trend going and use the same color, but two shades lighter (called Van Deusen Blue) in the half bath.

Everything is accented with freshly painted white trim (un-tinted Glidden semi-gloss) which makes the colors pop and everything look clean. I’m on a mission to paint each and every inch of trim in the house, so maybe it will be done in a year or four : P

Before we could start painting we had to take down a few fun character pieces of the home. Like this wicker lamp that was spring loaded into the floor and ceiling similar to a cheap stripper pole which we got a good laugh at, and these old curtains.

After that, we primed every inch of the space and left it to dry overnight. Next came the fun part- the paint. M was busy tackling other parts of the house so I was Captain-Paints-A-Lot. I managed to tackle the living room (Revere Pewter) and the dining room (Hale Navy) in 1 1/2 days.

Now onto the floors… I swear to goodness we have looked at every single floor option available in the last couple of months. We’ve looked at hardwoods, laminate, bamboo, tile, you name it, I can probably tell you the exact price and where you can find it. However, it wasn’t until we stumbled into Lumber Liquidators (not sponsored- I wouldn’t hate that though!) that we had our aha! moment. We knew we wanted something medium dark in color, and we wanted the hardest wood we could afford. (Just thought you’d like to know I’m laughing to myself and really want to add a “that’s what she said” right there. Yep. Too far.)

Our answer… bamboo! It is impressively high on their hardness scale, and the price is less heart-attack-inducing because it is made from a grass, not a tree, which is more abundant, hence it’s cheaper. After we decided on the type of flooring, we started narrowing down colors.

Drumroll please……… we decided on the dark and rustic looking one called Peking Antique by Morning Star!

It was on sale and we loved it, so we quickly headed home to measure out just how much we’d need. Well, here’s where the plot thickens. M’s family works in the construction industry and happened to have a very similar bamboo hardwood leftover from a previous industrial job. When we called to report on what we were purchasing, they informed us we could potentially use the leftover floors at a discount even better than the sale that was going on. Without even seeing them we yelled SOLD! Even better too- they were hand scrapped which we would have actually picked out for ourselves if our budget allowed it.

Insert a happy dance here.

So, instead of our Peking Antique we had the Moso Strand installed (by professionals- we may try some different spaces ourselves, but left this project to the pros) and we absolutely love them! Other important note- we let them sit in the house for a minimum of 72 hours for the wood to acclimate, thennnn they were installed incase you are DIYing a similar project : )

We also picked up quarter round from Home Depot to hide the rough edges. We originally were going to go for a wood alternative material, but after realizing we’d need to paint them to match the white semi-gloss we had already painted the trim, we opted for the pre-painted slightly more expensive version. We know overtime these will require more touch ups than the alternative, but it was late and we would have been up until at least midnight-1am painting 35 strips of quarter round. And after all the work we had done we were not about that. At all. I’ll keep you updated on how they hold up!

Now for the fun part- here’s a snapshot or two of the rooms as they stand so far- phase 1 is almost complete! (It’s been storming for a few days so I had to work with terrible lighting- I’ll update them once the sun decides to shine again!)

Here’s the before vs. now as well : )

The furniture is in the general layout that it will stay in, but we’re missing lots of accessories and accent furniture that will come in the near future. The dining room also got a fun treatment on the bottom of the wall, but we will be sharing that in a different post soon : ) Also- yes, that is a folding table with a tablecloth on it. When in Rome…

The half bath is also on it’s way to being completed, which is next up on our to-be-shared list, so hopefully this week we can spill the beans on that one!

Hope you have a fabulous week- I’m going to be plugging away at the house and dreaming of taking a nap : )

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