I am going to apologize ahead of time for what I imagine will be the content of my blog over the next month or so.
We're buying our first home!! And this home is what is on my mind, and probably will be on my mind for a while. So please forgive me as I babble about decorating and painting, and moving, and house stuff like that. Also...my brain is
extra scattered (if you can believe that), so I may not make much sense.
Now that you're thoroughly intrigued....
We got our 'clear to close', and are all set to close on Tuesday at 11. (Hooray!!) We already have someone lined up to watch the girls that day, and we're figuring out our gameplan for the next few weeks.
We close on Tuesday, but we have until the 12th to move out of the house we're renting right now. This gives us time to do some necessary cleaning, painting, and flooring in the new house. Right now, we're planning on doing major cleaning and painting next weekend, then moving in the following. I can't believe we might be in our own home in 2 weeks!!!
So...the whirlwind has begun. We did our final walk through this morning, and took some measurements so we can get estimates on carpet. (We were really hoping to not have to replace the carpet, but the previous owners had a dog, and the dander is everywhere. Both Becca and myself were coughing after being in the house for a little while.) We then visited some carpet stores and Lowe*s. (Have any of you used Lowe*s for carpeting? Heard anything about how well they do?)
I may have to post pictures as we do this, so I can look back and see our progress.
I also have some decorating questions...so feel free to share your thoughts/ideas with me, if you're so inclined (I would love to hear what you think!).
-There is a red brick fireplace in the living room. I'm not sure what color to paint the wall it's on (what goes with brick?). Any suggestions? Here is a picture of the fireplace. I really like neutral or warm colors (brown, red, gold, sage green...)
Also...at first, we thought the trim was oak, and were actually kind of disappointed. I really like the look of white trim-it goes best with the colors that I like for paint. But I wasn't going to cover up a nice wood like oak with paint. As we did our walk through today, our realtor pointed out that the trim is actually maple, and doesn't add any value to the home. Now I think we're going to paint it. She suggested spray painting it, then painting the walls. Have any of you painted stained wood trim before? As you can see, there's a lot of it. The baseboards, the windows, and the crown moulding. Also...what should we do with the fireplace? Leave the mantel oak, or paint it white?
That's it for now. Better get back to packing. Can you tell I'm excited???? (Oh, and in case this whole journey of ours has left you a little confused...this is not the house with the boat. We never heard back from the bank about that one. )
10 comments:
I'm back from my lttile trip and am trying to catch up on all my blog reading. I'm so excited for you - can't wait till closing is done and it's official! We painted our trim. It's just pine and it looks nice painted white. We cleaned it with TSP and it covered without problems.
Oh, how fun!! I don't fully have the decorating touch, but I do know that unless the room you're painting is bigger, darker colors will make the room smaller...but of course you probably already know that. For that room, I would suggest taking down that border and maybe looking at a tan color that maybe has some mauve undertones or something like that...of course I don't know what your furniture is like. Oh, have fun with this!! I'm so excited for you guys. You so deserve it!!
Yeah Yeah Yeah - so excited for you!
We have a brick fireplace and painted our walls a dark brown - it looks good. Actually you can look back at one of my first posts and I have a picture of it. Our trim is white but our mantel is wood (I think cherry) and the blinds in that room are faux wood to match the mantel where as the blinds throughout the rest of our house match our trim. It is what the blinds guy suggested and I really like it - it gives that room a different feel.
Enjoy! Have fun with the decorating and flooring!
Girlfriend- I'm in a similar dilemma with the trim. I say paint, paint, paint the trim white. It looks crisp and clean. And if you paint the trim white, I think the mantel would also look fantastic in white. Don't be shy. :)
You may regret asking opinions so openly, but I'll try to tone down my excitement and advice.
Regarding the wall color: Ask yourself the "tone of voice" you want for the room. Light and bright? Dark and sophisticated? You may even want to take the photo of your room as actually paste paint samples on it to try.
My personal philosophy is that I try to keep living rooms/family room in a more neutral range so that all my color comes from window treatments and wall accents.
Have fun in the journey!
What about a soft butter yellow? That should soften the look of brick and allow room to play and accentuate colors with curtains and such.
Fun! Fun! :) I'm excited for you!
i love to paint. i like white trim..be cautious on the white you choose. the brick looks more red than brown right? i think that once you paint all the trim your paint options for the room will expand. what wall colors compliment your furniture, fabrics, and such?
i have many colors in my home cornerstone (yellowish tan), robins egg blue, brick red, moss green... i love'm!
btw- i am an excellent cutter when painting. no blue tape required! have brush will travel :-)
You are speaking my language girl!
I just asked my hubby about the trim. He said to prime it with a good primer, like Kilz, then paint it with a semi-gloss or gloss paint (much easier to clean with kids!) We also used semi-gloss paint on our walls for easier cleaning, and I love it! They have a nice sheen to them. We do have textured walls, I'm not sure how it would do on flat walls.
I'd paint the mantel too, but I REALLY like white. I also think it would look nice left alone if some of your furniture matches. As for wall color, Go for it and paint the whole room! If you like neutrals, a nice taupe (kind of a greyish brown, not to dark) would be nice. That's the color of my bedroom. I always use the rule on paint that you should pick what you like, and then go one shade lighter. Once you have the paint all over the walls, it always looks a bit darker than you think it will! A buttery yellow would also look great. If you go to the tan/brown section of paint, and look for the more pale, yellowy tans, it'll give you the brightness of yellow with the warmness of tan. I think you'd like it a lot. One last thing (sorry :) Get a Pottery Barn catalog, or go to their website and browse rooms. They're a great source for paint and decorating ideas, even if you're not buying anything!
I gotta tell you - I'm torn on the trim. I love the look of stained wood trim and it goes with pretty much every color, but white trim also looks so crisp and clean. Honestly, I'm not sure you could go wrong. I guess the question is how much work do you want to put into it right away? Is it something you can live with for a while or do you feel like you need to change it now?
As for colors with brick, we have a red brick fire place and actually did two colors with a chair rail - cream on top and a rust color on the bottom with a stained wood chair rail in between the two colors. I don't know if that's helpful, but it really makes the room warm without it being too dark since the cream color is on the top.
Good luck - I can't wait to see what you do with it!
Not sure - not a big decorator - when I get a bug for it I love it, but I like to get things the way I like it then leave it until i get sick of it.
But, I am soooo excited you are closing on your new house. =) What an awesome thing!
YAYAYAYA!!! Renee is back! And she is buying a house!!! Since you asked....you can never go wrong with taupe/beige and brick. Just my opinion - take it for what its worth (not much)....I am in the middle of trying to pick out paint for our house----too many choices ---makes my eyes go crossed!!!
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