I remember my first little bungalow-style house I bought when I got my first “real” job after graduate school…
It was tiny and cute, but in need of a facelift inside. And a brighter front door color and window boxes outside.
All what I now consider to be my specialties!
I had a neighbor who was the queen of all things artsy… She was a watercolor artist, a potter and a weaver.
When I was pondering all of my color choices, she gave me some advice I still use.
Find a photo that inspires you and bring those colors to life in your project.
I started with a great photo of a container of flowers that inspired me for my front door at that old house.
Because it was a historic community, colorful doors were encouraged!
I must have gone through 300 different paint chips trying to match those colors.
Fast forward to today’s new technologies.
Painting Continues at the New House
We are finally in the home stretch of painting the main floor of the new house!! Finishing the kitchen and then the half bath and the master bath.
(Insert my happy dance here!)
Because the previous owner used bright blue enamel paint in many rooms, it’s been a much longer process getting things done.
The guest bathroom took sanding, a coat of primer and then three…count ’em…three coats of paint.
One tricky part of the renovation of this new house was that the great room and entry have cathedral ceilings that are beyond the reach of “Old Glory,” the tall ladder Pops brought over.
So we got the name of a good crew from a family member who is a builder to paint those rooms.
Here’s a quick peek of these areas…. finally all painted.
Now I’m moving on to furniture and accessories…and get things “just right” so the house finally feels like home.
And I’m moving on to tackle the master bathroom…
The quality of our only “Before” photos for the master suite aren’t great so I haven’t shared them much.
But here’s a peek at how the master bathroom looked the day we got keys…
I think my hands must have been shaking when I took these photos — either in anger about how much stuff was left behind for us to get rid of or from fear…wondering what we had gotten ourselves in to!
So my apologies for all the “blur.”
It was a quite a sight. Pink walls, bright red carpeting and “stuff” everywhere!
Shoes, clothes, cosmetics, bottles, boxes… a whole dumpster full of it was left behind.
(And “no” it wasn’t a foreclosure house, in case you were wondering.)
I’m happy to report the red carpeting was one of the first things to go! I’ll be sharing a Before and After of this room once we finish.
Matching Paint Colors Using Sherwin Williams App
The owner of the paint company that we worked with in the great room turned me on to a quick way to match colors in a room or even pull them from a picture in a magazine.
“Color Snap”is an app from Sherwin Williams.
How did I not know about this app before???
No more spending hours drinking way too much free coffee and eating the free watermelon candies sure to rot my teeth at my local Sherwin Williams store while I agonize over paint samples!
I downloaded the app (for free!) to my iPad to help me come up with some options for the mater bathroom.
I wanted something to match the border in the master bath…
Magnolias are a must for those of us with southern blood in our veins. And I liked the contrast in this border. But I was a bit stumped by what color to paint the walls.
So I snapped a picture of the border and loaded it to the app.
Here’s a screen shot so you can see what it looks like.
You can just tap on the parts of the photo you want to color match and use the (+) sign to add it to your own color palette.
I ended up with a lot of choices that I might not have considered…
Then I buzzed over to Sherwin Williams for paint chips last night. It was a quick trip because I could just use the numbers on my personal Color Palette to quickly find the samples.
Now they are taped all over the bathroom. Once I narrow it down, I’ll head back to buy a sample or two to try out in there.
Stay tuned…
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XO
Shelley
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