Choosing Paint is Crazy-Making

"It's just paint!" 

I have long exclaimed this phrase to friends and family needing support through their painting process.

"Stop fretting! Just do it! If you don't like it...you can always change it." Well, yes. All of that. However, now that it's MY house and MY time, I'm singing a different tune. As you can see from my large collection of sample pots, I've been spending a bit of time trying to decide. 

I told you about our IKEA drama. And how the IKEA white cabinets won't match our white walls. I was sad. I cried. But I moved on...because I LOVE grey and white. And that's what we decided to do. It turns out Matt didnt LOVE the stark white everywhere anyway. My kitchen will still be mostly white because I'm doing subway tiles on the walls...but the grey will help to warm up the living room in a wonderful way. 

We chose Martha Stewart Heavy Goose in Behr flat enamel, and brought home a little pot to sample on the wall. Because the light in our space changes every 1, 254 times a day, I knew that I needed to actually paint the color on the wall and not just bring home the paper sample. So I painted this little square, along with a few other accent colors. 

We liked the lightness and tone (or so we thought)...so we went for it and bought a 5 gallon bucket. Oy. I think you know where this is going. Matt spent all morning painting. When I saw it all done, on every wall...in all the lights of the day...I hated it. *sob face*

It was super light. Almost white in some light...but not quite white. More like an icy baby blue. Let me repeat that. ICY BABY BLUE. In my largest living space. I tried my best to soften the blow when I told Matt. He was NOT happy. Understandably. 

I gave him a day to consider my new ideas...and eventually he agreed that it was a bit too blue.  Although, he probably would have left it and just lived with it. But because is amazing...he said, 

"I will re-paint it. For you. Because I love you."

"Ohhhhhh thank you thank you thank you!" I exclaimed. And then I got busy looking for other greys. I thought I had done my research the first time, but apparently not enough. Because there are unlimited grey paint options and a zillion blog posts about it. I knew I had a little more investigating to do. There are so many tones of grey. Purple, green, yellow, neutral...but it all depends on your space and light, so one size does not fit all. 

After all my research, I settled on Porpoise by Behr. I loved how it looked in this house. So I brought a pot home, along with the lighter version of it on the palette. Foiled again! It initially looked good wet, but when it dried it looked so dark and purply! I couldn't believe how different it looked. 

I started looking through my sample pots and found one that I liked. I put up SIX sample sections...all around the room in different light. I Pinterested. I Googled. I sat and stared.

I stared at it while I sipped my coffee. 
I squinted at it in the mid-morning light.
I gazed at it in the afternoon glow.
And I laid on the floor after supper. 
Looking. Looking. Looking. 

And after all that, I said "I THINK this is the one!". Matt doesn't like to be standing at the paint counter ordering and have me say "I THINK...". But we went for it. 

Nimbus Cloud by Martha Stewart is our color!

You can see it on the wall above...those two samples are Nimbus Cloud. And you can sort of tell that the other grey on the wall was that nice icy blue. Hard to capture it's glory in a photo. It's a nice neutral grey. If it has any color at all, it might be a teensy bit of green. But I like how it looks next to the white fireplace. 

As I type this, Matt is busily painting away. He just finished the first coat and it looks good. So happy to be moving forward. 

In other painting news, we painted the hallway! Green and yellow! Then...wait for it...I changed my mind! The green felt too cold and sage-like (Wheat Grass by Behr). And the gold color got REALLY dark gold at night and was muted orange-y by day (Cork by Behr) And it felt like every other space we've ever lived in. Which for some people is a good thing...but I'm ready for a change.

So we went for something totally different. Toasted Coconut by Glidden. I love it. It feels like a warm hug. From Olaf. I love how it looks with the grey and white. This is the lightest it gets...and then gets darker throughout the day.

I'm going to paint the door a contrasting color...maybe green or yellow. And we are contemplating barnwooding that entire wall around the door. The wall going down the basement steps will be covered with big and small white frames with yummy art. The ceiling will be the same white painted wood that is on the living area ceiling. 

On the little half-wall and down the steps, I'm dreaming of some funky wallpaper. What are your favorite wallpaper sources?

Yes, it's bold. And it's not for everyone. But it's US. I can't wait to get curtains and art and furniture in here so I can stop obsessing about paint and move on to obsessing about accessories. Plus, adding all of those things will radical change how it all looks and feels. 

The master bedroom is painted now as well...and I AM IN LOVE.  I just found my dream bedspread on Etsy...a 1940's vintage piece. I'm working the entire room around that. Eeeeeep! I'm waiting until it's all done to show you...neener neener ;-)

So...the paint is nearly done. The gas line is getting run tomorrow. All the little things that have to happen before we can put it back together are happening. There are so.many.little.things. We are hoping to start laying down flooring late next week and then it will all move pretty quickly after that. We hope. 

In the end...it is just paint. Crazy-making paint. Relationship-building paint. Self-discovery paint. I'm glad that little journey is over! 

Tell me your paint stories! Happy Friday everyone!

Treasures in the Morning Light

Sunsets may get a lot of attention, but the morning light is every bit as breathtaking. Shining so intensely. A warm beginning. Welcoming the day.  Today, it sweetly kissed my little altar...and illuminated all of my treasures. 

My hand thrown pot & plant from my sweet friend Jen. 
A feather found at the farm.
A magic wand from Mandy.
Rocks gathered from afar.
A birdie representing my Mamacrew.
Crystals and an owl from my grandma.
A little snail from Kristin.
...and a reminder that LIFE IS GOOD.

Right now in Feathering the Nest, we are examining and sharing our treasured items.

Tell me about YOUR treasures!

What do you display to make you smile and remind you of good things?
 

How IKEA Made Mama Cry

Oh IKEA. I love you. I hate you. I love you. Maybe. This particular tumultuous episode in our relationship occurred on Sunday, bright and early. We left home with our big trailer...with hopes of filling it up with our entire kitchen contents...and toting it back up the mountain. We had been on the IKEA website, using the 3D kitchen planning tool...and thought we had everything roughly sketched and figured out. 

We walked through all of those adorable little apartment kitchens, opening and closing doors and drawers...anticipation growing in our hearts as we approached the planning cubicles. And then, as I was taking it all in, it hit me. The white cabinets IKEA offers didn't match the white paint that we had already spent a week applying. Why oh why?! At the time of painting, we didn't know if we were going with IKEA or not. Hence the difference. There is nothing I dislike more than mismatched whites. But we weren't about to re-paint everything. And so, we had quite the dilemma. We considered going to grey cabinets, but my heart has been set on white for-EVAH. 

As Matt and I sat at the planning table discussing our options...the girls were becoming increasingly vocal and "borrrrrrrrred". Two of them tried to go shopping on their own without letting us know. We were noticeably more rambunctious than the newlyweds next door planning their first kitchen with stars in their eyes.  I finally decided to just let Matt do the planning and I took the girls to play in the kid's section.

Matt continued to work his magic with the layout and we found some small tents and moose to commandeer...firmly in the middle of Sunday shopping chaos. After about an hour, we headed back and found Daddy finishing up. 

It was decision time. *gah* We decided to wait. We just didn't know what we wanted to do with the color of the cabinets and the kitchen in general. Nor did we have one ounce of energy left to navigate the Marketplace for the other items on our list. It was a big list. Lighting, frames, rugs, art room shelving, and more. But we walked out the door.

We left IKEA with nothing. 

Not one thing. Matt loaded the kids into the truck and I sat down on the curb. The sunshine warmed my face as big tears of disappointment rolled down and sat on my cheeks. I felt defeated. By IKEA. By my children. By kitchen cabinets. Our kitchen quest, and our remodeling adventure in general felt like it was going backwards, not forwards. The decisions just kept piling up and up and up. It was like that moment on HGTV when the weary mama is filming a selfie video as she hides in the closet...crying that this is just "too hard" and she can't go on. The mama I always shake my fist at and say..."Suck it up girl! you're getting a new kitchen! Geez!". And now I am that mama. 

I finally got up and we went on our way. Matt and I sat in silence for a long time...and I continued to cry. When he finally spoke, he said,

"I know it's hard for you when things don't go the way you planned.
We're going to make this work honey. One way or another. It will be great."

This man knows me deeply. He was so gentle in his approach, even though this little hiccup wasn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. It was just the straw that broke the camel's, or in this case, the mama's back. It had been a very long emotional week already. 

From that moment, things improved. Light started to shine in the cracks and we talked about all the options we hadn't thought of yet. We were all laughing by the time we pulled back into Boulder.  It was a gorgeous, warm day. We stopped for some iced coffee at Ozo and headed over for a little salvage hunting at ReSource. 

We have decided to change the color of our great room just a tad so that the white kitchen pops a bit more and the whites don't clash.

I'll be sharing about those paint choices later this week. I am notoriously quick and efficient with choosing colors and it's rare that we have to re-paint. This time...it's OUR home. And apparently that makes it harder than painting a rental. Much harder. Especially because I'm doing things a bit more muted this time around. I have to figure everything out from scratch. We have painted several rooms already and we are now re-painting all of them.

Matt just keeps smiling as he picks up the roller again and again. I now know why people say a house remodel can be one of the most stressful things you can take on. But tonight we had our first fire in the fireplace. Our home is warm. We are together...and all is well.