The Living Room Project

Since we moved in three years ago we knew we wanted to paint the living room. For three years we had not done anything to this house. Every room was pretty much colors we would have chosen, or at least weren't hideous enough that we didn't feel it necessary to do anything right away. As our three year anniversary came and went, we received news that Bill's parents would be coming back to visit. Their first visit was July after we first moved in. That kicked me into gear.
"We haven't done anything!" We have to get going. The other thing that was holding us back was choosing the right color for the living room. The dingy beige had to go. Especially after Bill did some patching and painted with the existing paint did we realize how dingy and dirty the walls really were!

I quickly took down the wallpaper in the bathroom and painted the walls there. You can see a picture here. Maybe in that post I mentioned how we came to chose the new color; if not here is the reason. I was reading about the difference between old Colonial Revival interiors and Craftsman interiors. Colonial interiors were often white walls. While Craftsman interiors reflected colors in nature, typically green. That was also the opposite color [on the color wheel] of the natural wood trim found in these style homes. That was my "ah ha!" moment. The unpainted trim in our living room has orange hints in it. Blue is opposite orange on the color wheel. That was it. Blue walls would enhance the wood trim that is throughout the first floor. In my mind I knew what color blue I wanted. Bill and I thought we found the right shade and bought a quart to try out. Thank goodness we did that. It was too blue. Smurf blue! Yikes. Back to the paint store. We finally found the right shade with the right tones. It's really difficult to tell in the photos, but the blue has hints of gray. It may still be a little too blue, but the white molding helps offset the walls.

But that's just the beginning. As we started stripping the paint off the trim, the paint started peeling off the walls in sheets. We don't think there's wallpaper under all the layers of paint. We think that there are just too many layers, latex over oil-based, and eighty years worth of paint on the walls.

We're working in sections. Or at least we started that way. We have the one corner finished, with the exception of the trim being painted. We worked from Bill's week off while his parents were here until Labor Day weekend. We took a break and are back at it. We hope to be finished by Christmas! I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, if you come and visit, please pardon the dust!

Over the framed opening into the Dining Room.

The fireplace and framed opening into the Dining Room.

Looking back at the finished half.