Monday, March 28, 2011

And The Fun Continues... Update From "Ruth's Reno-World"


As you can see, with plywood sub-flooring in place and the bare dirt below the house now covered again,
 my focus shifts primarily to paint colors now...



I could write a book...

Haha!  Let's just say it ain't as easy as I thought!






I've been hither, thither and yon searching out paint color
inspiration and I landed where I began...

Restoration Hardware.

Oh how I love their color schemes and with then grouped into
collections, it makes it almost fool proof to get a perfect scheme.


After seeing how the colors turned out in these pics 
(it's been raining and no sun all day, but I took them anyway)
I almost hesitate to post these but I just had to show you!

The dominant color in the two rooms will be
Slate and the accent will be the next shade lighter, Graphite.
The Graphite seems to want to come out looking a bit too purpley 
and the Slate a bit too brown, but hopefully you get the idea.


As you can see, we managed to get the plaster down and reveal the 
beadboard.  And there were NO bad surprises waiting for is under the 
plaster, either!!!   Yippee!
Some of the boards need to be secured up tight again, but other than that,
there were no "issues" to face.


Crown moulding was installed to unify what were two rooms into one...
and tomorrow the ceilings get a good coat of Kilz primer before moving on
to the "glamour" portion of her make-over:  
paint color!!


And speaking of that...

What a diva this old gal (the house) has been to work with!!

I approached the project with what I thought was a very elegant color palette
inspired by a vintage player piano roll and it's box... 
mellowed/aged tan and soft black...


{In the photo above, the vintage player piano roll and the black box, arranged on top of 
a sampling of the wood flooring that will be going down...}

Well she would have NONE of THAT!

What looked classic and elegant in theory was flatly rejected
by these walls!  YUCK!

You can see where I tried out the soft black below the chair rail in what will
be the dining room...

Well, can't hurt to try anyway...    :)


So, it was on to plan B....

And that seems to be the winner.

The walls will be done in Restoration Hardware's Slate -- a fabulous color
that can appear anywhere from grey to brown-ish grey... our local store is
done entirely in it (mouldings, everything!) and it is possibly one of the most
elegant spaces I've ever seen.

Being slightly too afraid to do our walls AND ceilings in it, I've opted to use
their next shade lighter, Graphite, for the ceilings.

Again, in the pic above Graphite is coming out purpley... not so in real life.

Slate is going to be the color that FINALLY works well with a big stained glass
window we have in what will become the family room...

As long as we've had this house, I've kept that feature covered (yes, I've hidden this giant
stained glass window) under a "faux" window treatment.

Though it's a pretty feature, it has so much pink glass in it and that is NOT
our thing here... So, in lieu of taking it completely out and having a glass person
replace all the pink glass with amber (my choice if I were doing it), I've chosen to just
"delete" it from the room by covering it.

Now, with this new paint color, I think I will finally be ready to incorporate that
element into play.   The pink glass still does nothing at all for me, but until we
can have it taken out and replaced with a better color, at least the new wall color will
soften the blow, so to speak.

Anyway, that's about all.  We're all still walking around with dusty/powder coated
feet.  I'm not even attempting to do any real clean-up until this is all done.

But we're on track to get the walls and ceilings painted by this weekend, mouldings
put back in place where they've been taken off temporarily, and next week....

THE FLOORING GOES DOWN!

I think, maybe,

just maybe...

I see a glimmer of a light at the end of this dusty tunnel!

I'll keep you posted as we go.... for SURE when the paint is done!!

Can't wait to show you!!  :)

Take care and I'll be back with some shop news.  :)

  

8 comments:

Unknown said...

It's going to look so lovely! I have a whole gallon of RH Graphite. It was purplish on my kitchen walls so I couldn't use it. :( Great color though. I think the black would have worked with light creamy trim but I agree, it's a no go with the wood. How awesome are your planked ceilings?!! Love it all, my dear!

Laura @ 52 FLEA said...

I love your colors and look forward to seeing the finished project! It is sure to be elegant! :)

Heidi said...

so gonna be worth the dusty feet! fun fun fun!
:)Heidi

Destiny said...

Oh my goodness Ruth...reading this post was like reliving my weekend all over again LOL - seriously...I have tried so many colors and I am STILL not "there" yet. I'll start again tomorrow, as I've asked the painters to postpone...next Monday it is! HUGS! ~Des

cathy said...

thank you for posting some pics! it will be lovely!! the dust and chaos will be so worth it :)

Super Maw Maw said...

Here is a new word for how I believe it is going to look.....HANDSOME!

designchic said...

Never feels worth it in the during, but in the end...so worth it!!

Angie said...

I have to laugh about your paint looking purple. I left my son in law at the town home we were going to rent out with 5 gallons of new paint. When he got home that night he called me and said, "I really like that lavendar that you chose to paint the LR/DR/Hall...." Me GULP, its not lavendar..its supposed to be taupe. Rushed over to give it a look and it was taupe. Daughter said "mom he cant tell light colors I have to constantly watch him when he dresses." Whew !