Behr Peacock Tail VS Behr Antigua

 Peacock Tail (looks navy blue in pictures)

VS

Antigua (looks more teal/green in pictures)

New roof and painted ceilings

         After a major storm in our area our roof started leaking in several places around the house. Thankfully our insurance covered the damages. It's been a busy few months for us. We had our entire roof replaced, along with a few damaged window screens during the Holiday season. 

       On top of that, on New Years, while we were out, someone accidentally shot a bottle rocket through our front window! I'm thankful a fire didn't start! We quickly had the window replaced.

        Then this weekend we had our ceilings painted in four rooms along with our Living room accent wall. This required us to move the majority of our decor and furniture to the garage. I used this opportunity to choose a different color for my living room accent wall. 

         Though I loved the previous color, Peacock Tail by Behr, I have always wished it was more green than blue. I decided to have it repainted, Antigua by Behr.  The color is still deep and moody, but more teal. We are extremely happy with it! Pictures coming soon!

 

 picking a paint color

Using the flash to see what color comes out in pictures

 

Antigua by Behr

I'm so glad this is over!

  

I can't wait to post pics of our new wall color next to pics of our old color

Master Bathroom Cabinets

       We finished up a bathroom projects a few weeks ago. Valentine's weekend I painted the Master bathroom cabinets white and we added new knobs. The previous owner had painted the cabinets and hinges quickly with primer. Seeing the wood peek through here and there has always bothered us, but we never got around to painting them.
       I'm so thankful we had the burst of motivation to do it, even if it was Valentine's days. I must say, a good coat of paint does wonders! And who knew hinges could be such a hassle! We made at least 3 trips to Home Depot buying and returning hinges. :-)

 

       Eventually we will replace the original counters and put in a nice white quartz counter. One thing I've learned about real-estate is you have to put a little money into your house every year if you want to sell it for top price. We were able to get a great deal on our house because it didn't have any upgrades, but now we have to invest and do those DIY projects. It makes for great memories, though. 

Future cabinet projects include painting guest bathroom cabinets and kitchen cabinets. 

Previous cabinet projects - Laundry room cabinets 

Laundry Room Makeover

         What can I say about our Laundry Room. It was sloppily painted a greenish tan color and the grout was black. It looked dirty all the time, no matter how hard we cleaned it. Finally, after a year of living in our house we decided, it was time! So, last weekend hubby and I put on our painting clothes and got working.

         You can see the before picture of the laundry room here. You can also see where we started to paint the grout.

      

         This is the wall across from the washer and dryer. It's been our paint sample wall for the entire house for the past year. My Dad loves it - looks like camo! ha-ha!

       I searched for awhile before I found a color I liked for the laundry room. I didn't know if I wanted to go bright, funky, dark, warm, cool...etc. I had no direction. But I was craving some chocolate...I guess hormones played a huge role in this decision LOL! I narrowed our choices down to Behr's Country Club, Milk Chocolate and Oakwood Brown. We both liked the darker color, Oakwood Brown, figuring we really couldn't pull off such a color anywhere else in the house. Yes, we broke an assumed rule for dark colors and small windowless rooms. Oh well! :-)

      

        This is the moment I started to doubt my decision. I knew the walls would look extra dark until the cabinets were painted and the washer and dryer were added back. But I still couldn't shake the doubt. My hubby kept reassuring me. He saw it. He had the vision locked in his mind and never doubted the process. The brown highlighted the dirty grout and messy painted base boards and made the cabinets look super orange. As with every room we makeover I told myself repeatedly , "It's just paint, you can always repaint." 

 

       

        After the walls were painted, we began working on the cabinets. We took down the doors and set them up in the garage. We rubbed a liquid deglosser on the frame and each door. Then, we painted two coats of primer with a roller made for painting cabinets. The next day I painted two coats of white interior acrylic paint. Never use oil paint - it turns yellow over time. Once all the painting was complete we purchased a few decor items to finish off the room.

        We even got a new key holder for our dog's leashes behind the door. What an upgrade from simple nails!  We found a cute laundry room sign and a lovely large flower print for the wall across from the washer and dryer that reads, "A walk in the flowers" in french. As you can see, we also put on new crisp white face plates for the light switch and electric sockets. 

       We also got a runner to warm up the space. Look at the clean crisp floors and base boards! :-) 

Cabinets before and after

          The final look with new hardware on the cabinets. The only thing we have left is crown molding (eventually) and a wall inlay that allows the dryer to be pushed back a few inches. :-)

Master Bathroom

    I love our bathroom. My husband and I really enjoy having our own sinks and large walk in closet that parallels the bathroom behind our sinks.God is really good.

 

(Our bathroom before. dark and dull.)

 (Our nephew checking our our bathroom) 

 (Whatcha think little man?)

 (What! You locked my hubby in the closet!! :-) )

 (Hubby bribing him to let him out)

 (The bribe worked!)

 (Our bathroom after. We've only decorated a little, lots of work left. But I wanted to catch our followers up.)

 (the cabinets were already painted white so we played it up. I would like to add a few more coats of white and change the knobs, and frames around the mirrors, not to mention new floors and new counter tops. For now I'll settle with simply scrubbing the grout next weekend :) Paint color is Behr's Ice Cube. )

 (Hubby's sink. Sorry about the fly swatter haha was chasing a fly around the house and left it there for the pictures :-) Hey it's real life! The lights over the sinks HAVE to go!)

(Love our bath. We get lots of natural light in here. Love it. Plus the neighbors bright yellow Esperanza hangs over the fence. Simple beautiful.I would like to get eclipse curtains in Champagne for this window. The sun gets super hot in the afternoons.)

       It's come along nicely. I'm excited to take you along on more of my master bathroom projects, like new mirror frames and light fixtures and eventually new floors. So much accomplished, so much yet to do. Enjoy the journey, this is your art, your creative outlet, your home, and family time. Love it all. 

Final decision on paint colors

Our final decisions on paint colors so far are as such:

Living room, hallways, entryway and dining room - Behr's Pebble Path and Behr's Peacock Tail for the accent wall.

Pebble Path is a nice warm color but shows up super yellow in EVERY picture and in the evenings against our house lights. During the day when the sun is shining in it's fine. So, we are going to repaint the hallways in whatever color we choose to repaint the dinning room. 

 (Pebble path in the entry way and living room while the sun is blazing through the windows! Love it)

 (I love Behr's Pebble Path while the sun is shining)

 (Behr's Pebble Path in the evenings...yuck! Yes, the dinning room is getting repainted. Can you believe it's the same color!?!?)

 (Behr's Peacock Tail blue. We love this color. Unfortunately, it looks navy blue in almost every picture. In person it's more teal. I have no idea why the green tint doesn't come through in pictures. (Again, Pebble Path looking very yellow...total bust) My dad thought we were nuts painting an accent wall this color, but now that he sees the full picture he really loves it. I can't wait for you to see it decorated!)

Master bedroom - Behr's Zen (accent wall) and Behr's Burnt Almond for the other three walls

We first painted the other three walls in Pebble Path..yuck! The yellow in Pebble Path pulled out all the yellows in Zen and made it look almost slimmer green. Hubs and I quickly back Burnt Almond and spent all night repainting the walls the painters just painted. We are crazy! But we are now VERY happy. It was worth the extra work.

 (Behr's Pebble Path next to Behr's Zen...yuck! They bring out the worst in each other.) 

(We love Behr's Zen now that the other walls are Behr's Burnt Almond. Also this is a great picture of our base boards and refinished floors)

My office - Behr's Gray Morning

 

I love it. It's calming yet creative. Perfect for my work space. Lots of natural light in this room as well.

Master Bathroom - Behr's Ice Cube

Everyone loves the color we painted our bathroom. It's very feminine. We added shimmery glass accessories and eventually want to change the mirror frames and cabinet nobs, along with the shower trim.

 (the master bathroom wasn't bad to begin with, just boring for us)

 (Master bathroom in Behr's Ice Cube. It gives a fresh and clean feel. We still have to paint the white areas to make them crisp.)

Rooms we have yet to paint :

-Guest bed room (future nursery)
-Kitchen
-Guest bathroom (repaint)
-Dinning room (repaint)
-Laundry room

    I would like to do something fresh and crazy in the laundry room. Something like sea foam green. You only live once, live in color! What's the worst that could happen? If you hate it buy another $40 gallon of paint and burn some calories repainting...no big deal! :-) Have fun with your space. Being happy is the most important thing.
     Paint colors are very tricky. Look at my experience with Pebble Path. I spent days searching other people's pictures online, I tried tons of samples and yet I still have to repaint. It's part of the process. :-)

Choosing Paint Colors

    Choosing paint colors was one of the hardest tasks. As you can see we bought tons of paint samples, this picture only shows half of what we purchased. Eventually our sample paint collection filled the entire shelf space.

     Even after all my research and trial of all the paint colors, there are some rooms I'm going to repaint. The way a color looks depends on it's surroundings. Don't assume the color of your dreams is the right color until you've looked at it next to other colors and in different lighting. Also, ask the paint department what colors and the amounts they are mixing to make the color you want. Those are the colors that will be pulled out the most. Many people ask how much yellow or green is in a color because they don't want their walls looking yellow or green (muddy). It's all about personal preference.