So when we bought the house, we both agreed that the outside has amazing lines, and we loved everything about it - the L-shaped layout, aaaalllllll the windows, the double doors, and the eaves with a 3' overhang. It was all gorgeous, except for the color. It was some sort of a pinkish beige, with a yellowy cream trim. I understand the decision behind the color - picking something that sort of matches the limestone that covers most of the front - but dudes, it was bad. It looked like this:
So this summer we hired a house painter to paint everything, and it made a WORLD of difference:
But I have a confession to make. As soon as the gray went up, I sort of hated it. As in, when my husband texted me a photo of the front as soon as he got home to see it [I was in Colorado shooting an amazing wedding] I immediately thought "that looks preeeetty blue..." But I had picked the color, and I tried to pick one that was more neutral with a greenish tinge, so maybe since it was dusk when he took the pic, that made it look more blue. But I got home from my trip and it still looked blue. I tried to convince myself that it was fine - no one else seemed to be bothered by it. But every time I looked at it, I couldn't make myself like it. I didn't want a blue house. This pic above doesn't look blue, because I photoshopped it to be less blue [probably because I'm vain and didn't want anyone to think I could pick a wrong color] The real color looked more like this:
B L U E.
And the thing is, it's not cheap to get your house painted. And he did a great job - everything looks amazing. It's all my fault, because I picked the wrong gray [It was called London Road, so that may have swayed me. I'm a tiny bit of an Anglophile, so I thought it was fate. ...it wasn't.]
So I went to Lowe's and picked up a few of their little 8 oz. samples in 4 colors, and painted large swatches on the house, and studied it at all times of day, in different light. You'll notice there are only 3 swatches, because #4 would. not. open. As in, I have a huge blister scar on the palm of my hand because it never opened. Even Brandon couldn't get it open, and even the plastic of the container was bending, but the friggin lid never came off [so if you get little samples mixed, have the person at the paint counter open it and then close it again, but less tightly - the other three were crazy hard to get open too]
[you may notice that the doors look a bit different. sometimes I have to work on little bits of everything at the same time, so it's a little bit of a spoiler for you :)]
[the foyer was a mess because we were also getting NEW FLOORS in the dining room and living room - another spoiler! post coming soooon!]
And the day before Halloween the weather was forecast to be sunny, 60 degrees, and slightly breezy. Lucky for my mom [or, maybe unlucky] it was also her day off! So we repainted the gray part. #2 ultimately won [it's Porcelain Shale in the Valspar Signature line], so we covered up that blue paint and made quick work of it. [less than 5 hours and only one gallon of paint! crazytown.]
We also painted the garage doors, because I finally had decided what to
do [white? gray? black? I'm a serious waffler, so that decision took a
while]. After reading the post from [the sadly defunct] Young House Love, I was pretty confident I could do it. And it was super easy! I pried off the rubber weather stripping first, then we
wiped down the doors with a deglosser to clean & prep, then primed them [I keep a gallon of Zinsser B-I-N for pretty much everything. It's pricey, but man is it amazing! I have it tinted to a medium gray and it's perfect for just about every job.] Then painted that Porcelain Shale over the almond color. The next day I nailed the strips back on, and with the doors open, painted it all white, and now it's done. And I can finally love the color of my house.
I sure a lot of people thought I was crazy. "I'm going to paint my house this week" "Oh? What color?" "Gray" "What color is it now?" "Gray"
But the people who have known me for a long time aren't surprised. I've been known to paint a room just a *slightly* different color. Because if it's just a teensy bit too warm or too cool than what I'm picturing, I'll hate it. Good thing I like to paint!
This is the color the house is meant to be. Finally unified, and dignified.
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