In my
previous blog post, I shared the photos of the dining room wall that needed to be repainted after the kitchen remodel, and I was just getting ready to start the next touch-up area: the great room wall. Here's what it looked like before I started:
There used to be a sliding glass door here, but since we never used that door to access the deck, we had it removed and replaced with windows as part of our kitchen remodel. The contractors added the new drywall area under the window and did the original taping and joint compound. As I prepared to start painting this area, I noticed a few areas that needed sanding and patching so that slowed me down.
Eventually, this entire great room needs to be repainted. It has a cathedral ceiling that I'm not willing to stand on a ladder to patch or paint, so we'll have to hire someone when we can afford to do it. So this touch-up project was just a temporary paint job to cover up the drywall and patched areas.
The previous owners of our house had painted this room and when we moved in, there was a little less than 1/2 gallon of paint left for us to do touch ups. Somehow, I must have used up that paint, because I couldn't find it after I had primed the wall. The closest match I could find in my paint "collection" was the Behr flat Navajo White - the same paint I used in the dining room touch up.
The Navajo White is a bit lighter than the original wall color, so I painted from wall to wall across and picked a height that I was comfortable reaching up to, and taped across a horizontal line, so that it would look like a deliberate design choice.
If I had been able to reach the peak of the ceiling to paint the full wall, I don't think anyone would even guess that its a different paint, because it blends into the corners quite well. I didn't bother painting the trim; it's already primed and we'll get to that later.
Once the paint was dry, I needed to add the shade and window treatment. I got the cellular shade at my local Blinds to Go and it's a very close match to the other shades in the room.
The curtains are from Bed, Bath & Beyond and match the rest of the room, too. They claim to block out 99% of light to help keep the room cool in summer, and they've been doing a great job this past week. I chose a shorter length for this window because we put the Westie crates underneath. The Levelor rod is from Home Depot and I had to visit two different stores to find the color finials and brackets to match the rest of the room.
After the great room was done and cleaned up, it was time to tackle the powder room. As part of the renovation, I'd stripped the wallpaper and primed the walls; our contractors removed all the old fixtures, patched some of the walls and installed the new cabinet and fixtures. Back in May I spray-painted the frame for the medicine cabinet mirror (see my previous post:
Hammered).
These are just a couple of the photos below. If you'd like to see more photos from various angles visit my
Flickr Kitchen/Powder Room Renovation set.
The paints are all from Benjamin Moore; the walls are Natura eggshell in Breath of Fresh Air (blue), the ceiling is ultra flat Waterborne ceiling paint in Bavarian Cream and the trim is Natura semi-gloss in White Chocolate. The Natura paints really do not have any bad odors, cleanup was very easy and I'm very pleased with the results so far.
I didn't paint the window trim yet; I'm planning to do one big trim painting when I finally start the kitchen. I don't know if you can tell from the photo above that I've applied a rice paper patterned window film to the glass on the window. It was less expensive than a new shade, adds privacy and light filtration and turned out very nice.
I'm planning to make a valance for the window from this fabric:
It's from my remnant collection and I've had it forever. But the color match is perfect for this room - the beige/gray background goes with the floor tiles and countertop and the blue flowers are just the right shade to pick up my rugs and other accents.
I just need to pick a valance style and get started sewing.
In my Summer Update post, I failed to mention this mini-quilt, a kit purchased from The Cozy Quilt Shop sometime last year. The pattern for this wall hanging is from Cottage Creek Quilts' "Backdoor Quilt Series"; its the third design from this series that I have worked on. Almost two years ago, I shared my version of the Winter Blessings and Be Thankful designs.
