operation white house
About a year and a half ago, I realized that almost all of the house photos I love on Pinterest have white walls. So I set out to convince my husband, which wasn't too hard, really. We talked about how much better and brighter all our family and blog photos would look if the light coming in our windows was reflecting off white walls rather than taupe ones (you can see the color of our old walls in Rooney's Nursery Reveal).
Then I realized there are hundreds of shades of white paint. Eek! Talk about overwhelming. After reading Young House Love's foolproof paint color list and Design Sponge's guide to White Paint, I went to Lowe's and Home Depot and brought home about 20 paint swatches and taped them on the walls throughout our house next to the trim and ceiling (since those colors wouldn't be changing).
Over time, after seeing the swatches in multiple types of light and different times of day, we'd pull off the swatches we didn't like. After FOUR MONTHS (I really wish I was exaggerating), the only swatch left standing was Glidden's Dove White.
Dove White is a calm, blueish white. I love that it looks white in full light and looks grayish when the lights are off. (This is totally personal preference. I didn't want anything creamy or yellowish, but if you live in an older farmhouse, you might choose to go with a cream instead.)
FIVE MONTHS after choosing a paint color (again, I really wish I was kidding), and deciding that having someone come paint our house for $2,000 just wasn't in the budget, I finally got the energy to go to the store and buy a gallon (we had Home Depot mix Glidden's Dove White using Behr paint with an eggshell finish).
I honestly thought I hated painting, but it has been so much fun! We did a bulk of it during the 2014 Winter Olympics so we could watch and paint at the same time. It's been pretty easy too because we haven't had to tape things off. Painting with white when your trim is white is super easy because you don't have to be perfect with your lines. I've been doing cut-in work and Eric has been rolling and helping me cut in.
We started with our main living space (entryway, living room, kitchen) and have moved on to the bedrooms. I love it! It makes our house look so much bigger, because you can't really tell where the wall stops and the ceiling starts!
I've been hesitant to share photos of our house, because it's not "done" by any means (and is rarely clean). But, it will probably never be "done," so here's just a bit of our house that we're making a home.
We have a growing list of house projects we want to do. We still have a couple bathrooms to paint, a basement to finish (the walls have been studded for about four months), and lots more plants to add.
SOURCES
mirror // shoe cabinet // play kitchen // bookshelves // small "R" initial letter // books: Numbers; Q&A a Day for Kids; My Mommy Is a Blogger; You Are My Cupcake; Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site; Romeo & Juliet; Goodnight Moon; Olivia; Celebrating You; Chamelia // name straw // Benny the Bull // large "R" initial letter // dresser // sleep sack // Let Her Sleep canvas DIY // laundry basket // deer head // arrows // pig bookends // chair // rocking chair // striped blanket // pillows (1, 2) // wall frames // kitchen cart // berry baskets (large, small) // felt balls // bowl // Be Brave print // pallet wall DIY // headboard // wall planter // arrows // wire names // sheets
xo,
