Change is in the Air

No we're not moving again. In fact, we're never moving again. Ever. I've already warned my other half of this. After dealing with the Moving Nazi Kevin on this last move, I've learned my lesson. Nope, we're here permanently and I couldn't be happier about it. I love my house. Love, love, love it. Especially now that I've finally taken the plunge and started painting. Remember these beauties?

Now I know you're asking yourself WHY I would want to repaint a room like this. I mean, come on. Beautiful orange walls, orange floors, faux painted (and let's not forget sand-textured!) orangish-brown trim and moulding, and a pink fireplace surround. Nothing screams "Welcome to our home!" more than orange, right? Right???

Okay, so maybe it hasn't exactly been a secret how much I despise the paint scheme in here. I'd say you could just ask Kevin, but I think he started tuning me out after the second straight week of listening to me bitch about discuss it with him. So I did what any good wife would do. I took matters into my own hands and got down and dirty with my paint chips. Aaaaaand 3 weeks later I was still getting down and dirty with my paint chips. (Note: I've never, ever claimed to be creative or have any sort of decorating skills whatsoever.) Thank goodness I have a persistent painter or god only knows how long I would have sat on my paint deck. Or how many color chips I would have picked up from Home Depot and Lowe's. At least seven trees sacrificed their lives for me and my paint chip obsession before I finally chose two colors. Yes, two. Because even as much as Kevin objected, I decided to paint the trim. Gasp, right? But I just couldn't go on with the trim looking like that. The entire reason I had such a hard time choosing paint colors (okay, besides my complete lack of vision) is because nothing goes with orangish-brown trim! (I know, pick your jaw up off the floor - it's true.) The only issue with my genius idea to paint it is that we had no idea how the paint would cover textured trim. Even our painter said he had never seen anything like our trim, nor did he have any idea why in the hell someone would do that to perfectly good trim in the first place. But I figured there was no possible way that it could get any worse, so I decided to give it a try.

The morning the painter came for the first time, I was a nervous wreck. Sadly, I don't think I've had that many butterflies in my tummy since the morning I was induced with Greyden. I could hear the painter prepping in the entry way, which happens to be directly behind me when I'm sitting at my desk. I was sweating bullets. Soon after that, I heard the swishing of the brush and knew it was too late to turn back. I pretty much sprinted out my office door when I heard him move on to the next section of the room. Ho. Ly. Cow. It looked...........awesome. Thank god I didn't chicken out at the last minute. Here is a teaser shot of my awesome white trim.

This picture was taken after just one coat of paint on the trim and it already looked like a completely different house. Even though it ended up taking the painter 3 coats and a couple extra days of work, I could not be happier with my decision. I even think that Kevin is happy with it, although he will never, ever admit it. The crazy part is that once we got the cream colored paint on the trim, the ceiling and fireplace instantly took on a pink hue. Enough so that if you walked into our house, you would have wondered why we opted for a Carnation Pink fireplace (to match the surround maybe?). Luckily I was planning on having both repainted anyway so no loss there. But maybe that explains why the previous owners opted for the pink fireplace surround?

The color I chose for the walls is called Relaxed Khaki. If you think that this sounds like a totally boring color, you're right. But after having faux, orange walls for the past 2 months, boring is right up my alley. Personally, I love the color. It's a beige/taupe/gray/green color (depending on where you stand and the light in the room) that pops out against the cream trim. My inspiration for the color in the room was the quote "Lord, just give me something neutral." Okay, I totally made that quote up. Regardless, neutral was my end goal. I can add tons of color with curtains, rugs, pillows, etc. And Greyden's play area obviously adds quite a pop of color to the space too. Yes, the room is neutral, but it's MY neutral and I love it. I just want to hug the walls (however my painter discouraged me from doing so for at least 72 hours after the final coat). So here are the big reveal pictures!
 First up - The living room:

Can you believe the change? We started here: 

And ended up here:



This shot shows how the color can change in different light. It's a lot more beige here than it was in previous pics.



No, the room is still not even close to being done. We've just cobbled together a bunch of our previous decorations and tossed them in here to get us by. We're getting new end tables, a coffee table, throw pillows, curtains, a rug, and there will definitely be something (or a lot of somethings) hanging on the wall over the couch. But baby steps here people.

After he finished the living room, the painter moved on to the kitchen. Again, we started here:

(Please be sure to note the lovely peachish-yellow walls and even MORE textured trim around the windows and door frames. This time it was a beautiful beige with sand texture over a pink base, instead of the orangish-brown. Lovely.)

Here is the after! 



My pride and joy, even though I can't actually use any of it's contents for a few more months. Boo.



The color is the exact same one as in the living room, although I think I'm even more thrilled with it in here. The cabinets no longer look like they've sat out in the sun for 3 years. A little change of hardware and I'll be good to go with those, versus the mass refinishing I had planned before. Other plans include replacing the boob light fixutures above both the island and the kitchen table with pendant drum lights, as soon as I figure out how to do it. (For those on Pinterest, you've probably noticed the sudden mass amounts of DIY drum pendants I've been pinning lately.) 

We had big plans to do the office, master bedroom, and future nursery as well, but after how huge of a project this turned out to be (it took the painter two weeks total after I decided to do the trim, instead of the planned 4 days for just walls and ceiling), I'm just thankful to have my house back to myself for a while. Maybe we'll get him to do the office so that I don't have to try and remove wallpaper (from the ceiling, no less), but I think we might try to tackle the master bedroom and nursery on our own. Count this as your notice, Kevin. Regardless, I'll be posting more before and after pics as we work on making our new house (and new, old state) home. And since I know what most of you are thinking right now...........yes, we do accept volunteers.