Tuesday, August 17, 2010

agonizing about color choices

I have been ripping out photo spreads out of Better Homes and Gardens, scouring home decorating books from the library, studying the Benjamin Moore paint cards intently, and painting scrap pieces of drywall in anticipation of this week.

When we first arrived in Maine back in June the interior of the house was framed, but since then we have slowly seen the drywall crew install, sand, and prime the walls, watched the front porch become a reality, and marvel at the engineering involved in installing our new furnaces (to combat Maine winters we have decided on both a wood boiler for cold days and a propane boiler for shoulder season when the temps get above 30F. This from a southern girl who didn't know that it could get much colder than 30F!).

Having mostly lived in rental housing, I have never gotten to chose colors for a home, put shelves on the kid's bedroom walls for all their dolls and trophies, or have enough wall space in the schoolroom for maps AND a chalkboard. And, since Tim hates any change to his surroundings, once the walls are painted and the furniture placed they will be there for the next 30 years, I better choose well the first go-around. 

I have narrowed my colors to 12, repeating some in several rooms (for example the boy's bath, the music room, and the basement bath are all light blue). The builder bought the first two colors and put the first coat on today, turning the house from a white shell to a preview of what it will look like in less than 2 years with all our furniture placed inside. I'll post some of the rooms with color over the next several weeks, not only to share with friends, but also with my husband, who has left the selection completely up to me. For some reason I can post pictures here with not too much trouble, but attaching pictures to email is an impossibility using dial-up.

Here is the living room/kitchen and front hall (the bottom portion of the walls will be wainscoting in glossy white to match the trim and windows):   


3 comments:

Michelle said...

Looks great, Kat!

Sorry to hear about the boys. Had that happen to my friend when I was about 10. Could have been me, but she was the unlucky one to step on the nest. Couldn't come out to play for a week!

Karen said...

Tip from someone with a professional drywalling husband: Any sort of gloss paint, whether it's semi, satin, high gloss, will show ANY flaw in finish of the drywall. My husband recommends flat or eggshell and there are plenty that are washable.

Looks great tho. :) Love the sagey green.

kat said...

Yes, we went with eggshell on the walls and gloss on the trim. However, after looking at that yellow hallway for a few days I decided that it was much too bright and changed my choice to a cream. I also decided to go with all historic colors on the 1st floor and changed a couple more room colors.

The next step is picking out countertops, appliances, and fixtures, oh dear!