Decking the Walls

Painting our cozy house in the park

Over the past three days, we painted my downstairs office, and the upstairs living and dining room areas of the house.  It only involved a round number of four trips to Ace Hardware – the local dealer for Benjamin Moore Paint.  We’re of the philosophy that paint is an investment in your home.  You should be able to wipe down a wall when it gets marked, not have to repaint the whole thing.  My parents chose Benjamin Moore paint in their home – it’s going on 10 years and still looks great.

Photos can’t do the colors justice, but I’ll try.  The photo below is similar to what we have chosen to put on the walls in my office.  The walls might be a shade darker but it’s a pretty close color match.  PS this color is from PaintBox Yarns.

These office walls are decked in “Old Pickup Blue”.  I still need two new lightbulbs for the sconces that my fiancé installed for me – so the photo of the office is a bit darker than it will be in the not too distant future.  Also, please excuse the mess.  We are still finding homes for everything and my niece, I mean my interior designer still needs to make a visit.

My desk should be arriving any day now.  It’s a mix of faux wood and black metal hardware.  We’ve got an exposed ceiling that the previous owner painted black – so there’s a really industrial vibe in this room.  We’re keeping the exposed ceiling – and cutting a vent into one of the heating ducts so that I can have a cozy home office rather than a frigid one.  The wall sconces, though they’re hard to see reflect this, and I also plan on updating the overhead light in time.

Under the stairs, and just at the edge of my office is an under the steps nook.  We’ve made this space Murphy’s and will be adding to it as we find the right accents.  Eventually, we plan on adding a gate to replace his cage, some shelving and hooks for storage and maybe a short little piece of furniture to act like the back wall.  Yes – we have a Hairy Potter – and we are those pet owners.

We decked the walls in the upstairs living space in a light grey called American White.  It’s a subtle color that really brightens up the room and makes the fireplace pop – kind of like the skein of yarn below from KnitPicks.  We had grey in our condo before we moved and we really liked the way it looked and felt, so we had a feeling that we’d be picking a shade that fit this space too.

Here’s what the room looked like before we decked the walls:

And here’s what it looks like now!