While The Boys Are Away....Mom (and Dad) Will Paint

First project to complete was painting the boys' bathroom. SO much easier while they were gone. 

Remember EVERY wall in my house was white (so use your imagination for the "before" picture)...I don't like white walls.

This was for Riley... his bathroom will always have Pi in it....well under the solid paint. Riley thought that was pretty cool.

The color I chose was Valspar's "Empire"... It started with the shower curtain we bought, and I matched the wall color to the middle gray stripe. Although on the wall and with some of the stone backsplash the boys have, it definitely turned a little green. SO it's a grey green.... you will so so much gray tones in this house, but I still loved the way it turned out. 

Empire 

View from Reece's room.

View from Riley's room.

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Next was the boys' loft... AKA video game room. We stuck with the awesome color "Smoked Oyster." The color we put in Riley's room...the one that I was so jealous wasn't going in my room. We actually made it the color or most of our house. I'm telling you...everyone should find a reason to use this color in their house. Back to this picture... it doesn't show well, but it's warm and perfect. We bought the boys' these gaming chairs too. They weren't too expensive and really make this room cozy. I was worried they would be glued to them as soon as they tried them out, because they are just that comfortable....thankfully that hasn't happened. They are good about not just "camping" out there. That is Riley's room and Reece's door is not pictured, but to the right.

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While painting the rest of the house, I struggled with several "issues" this house presented. I really didn't want just ONE color on all the "living" walls.... the issue was, it's open concept and the corners of all the walls are rounded. This made it so hard deciding where to start a new color. The other issue is I'm really not a designer... so being a very visual person, I struggled making a decision...and I had several "ideas" that I thought would look perfect and after a little trial run, it was the opposite of perfect. Finally the idea of just having one wall...the entire huge south wall, would be best for the "accent" wall. This would have to be our pop of color. My original thought was the pretty, bold, gray blue we used in the laundry and hall bath would be perfect. I painted a big section of the wall that color, and I watched the color in all hours of the day... it was great. Until the sun went down. Then the color didn't work for me. I needed to have this color perfect, because the ceilings are so high, it was going to be a "one time only" paint job. Thank goodness for paint samples. Here are some pictures of what our walls looked like in the decision process.

The winning color was "Flood Tide" ... it was on the same card as the color in the bathroom and laundry room (I'll have to show those off later...) just one shade lighter. It had a little more gray in it... and it was color #2 if anyone noticed on the pictures above. As soon as I started, I knew it was the right decision. It's so gratifying making a decision like that, and knowing I was committed, and being so happy I made it. (Without my sister's help...the REAL designer.) I picked her brain...a lot... via text. Pictures never do anything justice and she is 675 miles away. So I feel I did a lot of this on my own.

Yep! No regrets! The perfect accent wall! (All the other walls are the "Smoked Oyster". This was taken from the boys' loft... I really think that the ceilings peak at 20 feet... the loft helped some, but we had to invest in a fancy and very sturdy ladder. It made the job so much easier. Jake will probably need it just to change out lightbulbs in some of our fans. PS. You can see our beautiful knotty pine ceilings...just LOVE them! It's makes this house feel so warm! 

That's all I have for now...