Sneak peek...

Much of our house painting is done and I couldn't be more excited. Only the office and bathroom are left so I'll share photos as soon as it's all complete. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek at the light gray that's throughout much of the house...

hallelulujah! it's time to paint....

after a year of living with flat paint beige walls, we're finally painting the house! I've chosen two versions of warm greys for the majority of the rooms. I want the living/dining room to be a little bit darker and more dramatic...

so I chose Benjamin Moore Thunder. 

It looks lighter in this sample photo, but on the wall it is much more grey. 

For the rest of the house -- living room, kitchen, upstairs loft and hallway -- I chose Cotton Grey from the Behr Home Decorators Collection. 

I had them colored matched to Sherwin Williams Satin Eggshell Finish so the rooms have the same sheen. It's happening in the next couple of weeks and I am so excited. 

We're also painting the downstairs bathroom and my office so maybe it will finally kick-start my efforts to decorate my office. Which currently looks like a bomb went off in it. 

The walls are going to be a soft green/blue/gray. 

The downstairs bath color is currently under discussion. We're considering grey, blue or a mustardy gold. I want a deep bold color but the hubby is afraid it might be too much. But if you can't go dramatic in a small bath, where can you do it?! 

I'll be posting pics as soon as the rooms are complete so stay tuned! 

nice rack! black and gold magazine rack...

black and gold is my latest design obsession. I may or may not have spent $40 on 9 clearance vases at Target and 5 of them may have been black and gold. OB-SESSED. I'd been looking for a magazine rack for a while and when I found this one at a local vintage store for $12, I knew I could restore it to some black and gold loveliness.

I loved the detail. It was a little beat up but nothing a little spray paint couldn't bring back to life.

First I taped off all of the areas that will eventually be gold. 

Then I sprayed the exposed metal with semi-gloss Rusto-leum black spray paint. 

I let it dry for 24 hours then removed the tape. After another 24 hours, I taped off the freshly painted black areas. If you're doing a similar project, make sure to let the paint dry for a couple of days before taping it off so that the tape does pull off any paint that hasn't set yet. 

I thought maybe the frame was tarnished brass, but some scrubbing with a good brass cleaner revealed it was not. It was beat up and rusted so I grabbed my gold spray paint, Rusto-leum again. 

After letting it dry for 24 hours, I removed the tape. There were a couple of areas where the gold had leaked onto the black so I just grabbed a small craft paintbrush, sprayed it with some of the black paint and touched up any gold overspray. 

The result was better than I imagined. 

Retro, glam and totally unique. I'm so in love with it. 

color me indecisive: choosing the right paint color...

now that we're heading into fall, my focus around here is shifting from the outside of our house to the inside. specifically painting this place. when we moved in, it was a blank slate. the builders paint was all that was on the wall. since then we've been living in pretty much a beige box...

beige carpet, beige walls, beige tiles in the kitchen and bath. It's been great to have as a backdrop while deciding on the direction I want to take our decor, but now it's time to get down to business. 

We have a great open floor plan but that also means, whatever paint colors we choose have to work equally as well in the family room, hallway, kitchen and upstairs loft and hallway, since they are all connected. I've decided on gray, light gray in the majority of the house, a darker gray in the combination living room/dining room right at the front of the house. 

But that's a far as I've gotten. Numerous trips to Home Depot and Sherwin Williams and all I have to show for it are rows of paint chips taped to my walls, taunting me as I watch TV... 

Greeting me as I enter the house...

Even when I head upstairs, there they are begging me to make a decision...

(10 points to the person who can tell me where that quote is from.) 

I want to make a decision. I really do. But just when I think I've decided, the light in the room changes and so does the color and there I am, back at square one. I always thought having my own house would be great because I can pick out whatever colors I want and paint to my heart's content. But in reality I find myself with a case of "painting paralysis." 

Have any of you suffered from this debilitating condition? How did you find a cure? Let me know before my house becomes the world's largest collection of paint chips!