Friday, June 22, 2007

If you paint it....

....they will buy it. Well that is my hope. For three and a half years now I have been living with wall board from the 50's. It is some weird french motif with a fountain and a garden. Some people just love it because its different and some people think its just awful. I fall into the last category. You can be the judge.......

So this lovely wall board runs throughout quite a bit of my house. The hallways up and down, the stairs and the library and exercise room. It is in about 70% of the house. The upside is it is easy to clean, and you can run into it with roller blades or the big wheel and there is no damage done.

Why have you lived with this eye sore for so long, you ask? Well we were going to pull it down and sheet rock all the walls, then paint. So sense we are going to probably list the house I need to give it a clean coat of paint my realtor friend says. YAY! I actually get to paint the house!!

So as you can see we have VERY dark brown trim through out our house. It is original so over 100 years old and can you believe it has never been painted! I pulled out my color wheel, found the color of the trim then moved up the color scheme to find the lightest color in that color scheme ( I know this is getting confusing, bare with me) So I find a color that seems as though it will work well. Remember I have 70% of my house to paint this color on. So I commit to the 5 gallon container and get busy painting. Long story short ;-) 5 hours later.... 2 coats of kills....1 coat of paint and I'm not sure that I like it. Its bland. Theres no motif. I'm not sure what to do. Don't get me wrong I still dislike strongly the french design, yet its just blah now. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated! I guess I will head to Big Lots tomorrow and pick up lots of pictures for the walls, then stop by Lowes and pick up some stain for that window panel that has been unstained for over a year :-/


This is the entry way that I completed today. I cant seem to get a picture of the whole room but its about 10x12. The door is obviously on the center wall and there are matching floor to ceiling windows on either side, with columns that lead to the hallway and stairs.



4 comments:

runningtothecross said...

Hi Audrey!

Love the music!

My suggestion would be to find a color that compliments the one you have already painted and either sponge paint over it to get a subtle pattern or try to paint a "glaze" over it (I think that is just adding water to the complimentary paint to thin it out a bit.)

My mother-in-law painted her last house by sponge painting and ended up with a texture that looked like swade leather. She may have used 3 different colors, but she did a sample first to make sure it would turn out. It was beautiful!

Have a wonderful day!
Blessings!
Heather

Anonymous said...

may i first say that from your pics ur home is beautyful and looks even better now that you have painted if u are trying to sell the home i would leave it just as u have it now maybe hang a nice mirror or two large sconces on either side of the door i think when selling leave it simple not bare just simple so that poeple can come up with their own ideas when looking at the home

rcsnickers said...

I love the entrance! What a beautiful home you have. I wish I had great advice. I kinda agree with the anonymous person in leaving it to allow the next person to paint the color they choose. Or you could ask your midwife what color she would recommend since she is a optional buyer! Good luck. Have fun.

Letisha

Trying to figure out how you do everything... sew, homeschool, clean cook, paint, etc! You are a super woman! Are your pains completely gone? Also, love your music!!!!

Stephanie said...

I like the paint job...I enjoy simple clean walls and despise wallpaper/wallboard of any sort :-P

Our home is a 75 year old arts and crafts style bungalow...it has a lot of the original woodwork as well, but unfortunately ALL of it has been painted white :-/ :-P I want to get it back to the orginal wood, someday...I had to remove wallpaper and paint about 60% of the house when we first moved in...but it's fun, I enjoy doing renovations and decoarting...and I LOVE old homes! You have a beautiful home :-)

BTW: I just began a big batch of kombucha and I don't really want to disturb it...but it should be done in about 10 days and then I can send you a mushroom...is that ok?
If I happen to forget, just remind me...The preggy hormones tend to make me scatterbrained and forgetful ;-)

Oh that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever! Duet 5:29