National Painting Week

We’ve been pretty busy with projects lately.  I just showed you the flooring in our living room this weekend.  That was a huge step in cleaning up and unifying the look of our house, but there is still a lot to go.  For the most part our living room is livable, well actually it is comfortable too, but there is still a lot to be done.    So when we got asked to participate with Sherwin Williams in the National Painting Week, I totally jumped at the chance!  Even if it did mean that we only had a week to do all the things I had in mind, which may or may not have almost killed us.

We got to pick the color we wanted to work with and I chose YELLOW!  Hellow- Yellow!  Check out this sexy curvy beauty!  (Also Check out the blog House of Earnest to see another lovely yellow project!)

About the project, since we have a ginormous wall of rock and a rustic fireplace in our living room, the space sort of lends itself to a farmhouse vibe.  Which is okay with me, cuz I like the look right now.  We have done very little in this space design wise.   On the construction side, we did remove the wall between the (soon to be) kitchen which was a HUGE job and we had a contractor help us.  The only other things we’ve worked on in the space is adding a weathered wood mantel(to put or TV on, I’d call that a necessity- we’ve been watching the British show Merlin on Netflix, anyone else?), and building a Dutch door/baby gate, also necessary.  So this project was a chance to really get started on the room, and actually put a coat or two of paint on the walls, and doors, and furniture, and clock… well you get the point.

The space started like this, a classic of an ugly before picture if you ask me!

So there are two doors on this entry wall that  I am focusing this project on.  One is our Dutch barn door door (free plans part 1 and part 2) the other is just a storage room door.   I loved painting my doors black in Texas (here and here) so much that I have been itching to paint the doors here.   I wasn’t quite sure if I was going to actually go for more color, but in the end, I chose a charcoal grey tone.  I used Sherwin William, Emerald, Satin paint in #7069 Iron Ore.

For the barn door, while it was already stained I have never been happy with the color.  I wanted to change the color but keep the wood grain.  So, instead of just painting it, I washed it with the Iron Ore paint to darken it to the same tone as the other door.  In the first picture you can see what a difference the color made.

On the walls, I wanted a subtle texture  to add some architectural interest.  We have done board and batten wainscoting in our last house and our first house from like 10 years ago,  I have a thing for moldings.  But, I didn’t want to do what has now been done everywhere in blogland again.  So, while I really liked the wainscoting, I wanted to do something just slightly different (or at least I feel like it is slightly different).   I have been checking out old barns, and beautiful home exterior pictures like this from Southern Living, since I am going for the farmhouse look.

I decided to do the whole wall board and batten, just as a background, less of an actual molding finish just for interest:

Of course I had to paint it, isn’t that the point of National painting week?  Well yeah, I’d say so!   I am loving white walls right now, as super neutral backgrounds, especially since we don’t have any natural light in here, and we need the brightness.  I used Sherwin Williams Emerald, Satin Paint in High Reflective White.   It is amazing the difference the white paint makes on the board and batten wall treatment, it melts away the high contrast and just leaves subtle shadows.  I love it!

Once the wall was painted we had to finish off the newly built step with a wood tread to match the new floors.  It looks much better than the old carpet wrapped stair if I do say so myself.

At this point the foundation was set, so we could start adding some furnishings, which is really where the fun part begins!

I wanted a small table for storage and of course my hottie yellow Swedish clock project.  So we went shopping for something that would work.  We found this for $15.00 bucks at the DI (Goodwill), and with some random scrap wood, and a table saw, Justin made a perfect entry table:

I painted it with Sherwin Williams, Pro Classic, Satin paint in #7065 Argos.  I found a set of 2 pulls on Clearance at Target to replace the old hardware.  (not installed below obviously!)

Followed quickly by the clock.  We are so excited about how it turned out, I promise I will tell you how to make this soon!  I painted the clock with Sherwin Williams, Pro Classic, Satin paint in #6910 Daisy.  I decided to wash the clock with paint so that the grain of the wood showed through.  I am not quite sure if I plan to change it with a glossy coat or not… Right now it is pretty much matte since I wiped off any extra paint to keep the wood grain.  If you wanna try your hand at building this beautiful clock too check out the  how to build a Swedish clock part 1 and the rest of the story, part 2.

 Lastly we decorated a bit,  and here is the final space all dolled up!

Don’t you just LOVE the pops of yellow.  It is making me SO happy!  Please be sure to check out www.nationalpaintingweek.com to see other great inspiration!     ( in case you missed yesterday’s posts Little Green Notebook and Coco and Kelly have some lovely green projects!!!)   Tomorrow Amanda from Recycled Consign and Design and Emily of Decor Chick are working on something blue!  I can’t wait to see!

*Thank you Sherwin Williams for sponsoring this project!  All the thoughts, opinions and true love for my new BEAUTIFUL yellow Swedish clock are my own!