The "New" Living Room

I'm so glad I can say our living room paint job is done! We are both very pleased with how it turned out. And I guess its like anything, after a day or so, you almost forget the previous color, and kind of wonder why you didn't do this months ago. I'm thrilled its done!

Here is kind of a painting back story. When we were first married we lived in this adorable little coach house. There was the giant main house with gardens everywhere and a huge Koi pond. It was beautiful. Our little house was on top of a three bay garage about 500 metres away (so still very private). Seriously people, it was adorable. Idyllic! We asked if we would be allowed to paint it, and the landlord said yes. She said she would reimburse us for the paint...great!

So off I went to Home Depot, probably with a little skip to my step. I was so excited! I ended up using all seven colors of the rainbow in that house. I know! Intense. Lets start at the beginning of the house and do a walk through...

As you step into the house you are in a little entryway, painted a deep red. The laundry room is to your left and the kitchen to your right. As you enter the lovely terra cotta (orange) colored kitchen you can look out into the yellow dining area and living room. Then if you continue down a hallway, the moss green bathroom is to your right. At the end of the hallway, the master bedroom is painted an electric blue. The spare bedroom is painted a lovely lilac purple color. And just to top if all off, I think the laundry room may have been beige.

So you can imagine when I gave the landlord at $300 paint bill she was none too impressed. "Well I thought you buy a few cans and do a bit of color here and there, NOT THIS!" So we split the bill, and I'm sure she never agreed to buy paint for her tenants again! And I learned never to put that much paint on a rental, or heck, a house for that matter, ever again!

So fast forward 5 years and here I am, ready to paint a 400 sq. ft living room, and what color did I choose? Hot pink, cherry red? Nope and nope! I picked Ivory. Which I figure is just a fancy way of saying off white, but it has shocked my color sensibilities. I mean doesn't that sound so incredibly boring?

But I completely and utterly love it! Before I could never get House & Home's White Issue. I mean who paints their entire house white? I think I've finally arrived. I've become a believer. Honestly it has brightened up our house so much, and drawn so much more attention to the accents. Its unreal. So when it comes your turn to paint, I suggest the white road. It is slightly overwhelming with the 1000 different versions of white, but honestly, you'll hopefully come out the other end as happy as we are!

So without any further ado, onto a pictoral history of our living room...

These are two pictures I took when we first did our walk through of the house. So not our furniture, not our style, but you get the picture. And yes, that is Jesus hanging over the dining room table. Don't get me wrong. I'm a big fan of Jesus, but watching you while you eat? Kind of weird if you ask me. So now we always refer to that wall as the "Jesus wall."

Fast forward 10 months to us getting ready to paint the living room. We started on Friday morning. Rob's parent's came in and took both kids for most of the morning, and then ended up taking Abbi back to their house for the weekend. Made the entire thing possible.
Thank you guys!

The last shots of that "lovely" feature wall. Ugh, so glad I never have to see it again! Au revoir!

Then one coat of primer lovin'

Then some good ol' fashioned cutting in...

Remove the old "baseboard" which is actually door and window casing. I think the previous owners were just looking for a fast fix. We took it off and replaced the house's original door and window casing. Plus, it perfectly matches the profile of Rob's new baseboard!

If one notes the "expertise" used when installing the laminate flooring you kind of understand the fast fix idea. Yikes!
The work bench (AKA, the kitchen table). We are both messy painters, which is good in a sense, because at least we are messy together. The walls may look incredible, but the rest of the house kind of looks like a bomb went off type thing! Note the customary cup of coffee, which was a must-have for this project!

First coat done, and its already already looking pretty good! The only catch is that it actually ending up taking three coats! I am now a believer in primer. The blue wall that we primed took only two coats, whereas the pale blue walls with no primer took three. Ouch! Thankfully we did have enough paint, and even a little left over. The entire room basically took 2 cans of paint.

"Crisp Linen" by CIL Signature. Eggshell finish.

"Holly's Baseboard Factory." This baseboard came already painted a tan color, so it took three coats of semi-gloss white paint to get it up to snuff. I became a Baseboard Master!

"Rob's Workshop." The weather was slightly uncooperative with our living room painting attempt. We had to pack up the tools many times, only to have the rain stop minutes later and be able to go back outside. Welcome to Alberta!

We basically finished everything (painting, and baseboard installation) by late Saturday night. It went really quickly (despite the numerous coats), and we are so glad it is over and done with.

And here is the finished product!
The living room.

A view of the dining area. Finally, my favorite tablecloth goes with this room!

Some beautifully installed baseboard. My husband truly is a whiz at this stuff. Considering he had to battle out of square walls and uneven floors, he did an amazing job! Doesn't it look incredible? I love the profile!

The casing around the basement door. Also, the best picture of the actual paint color.

And voila, just like that our living room has been transformed! It was a lot of work, but we love it! Next the stairwell, which will take some doin' as we will need to get some sort of scaffolding to do it (two stories high). It will be the same color. Then onto the kitchen, which I'm thinking will be our late summer/early fall project. I'm thinking of continuing this paint color, perhaps a touch lighter into the kitchen. And repainting the cabinet doors. Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it.

Hope you enjoyed this little tour of our house and a glimpse at our "new" living room!