Tag Archives: benjamin moore

Ranch Rambler: Progress in the Office and the Prettiest Green Paint

I love the look of painted furniture, but most things in our house are the kind of wood you just don’t paint.  So I was excited to discover that my office at the Rambler was in dire need of closed storage, and that this slender little armoire – found on Craigslist – would fit perfectly into the space.  Red House West || A green cabinet and progress in the office

This photo might illustrate two things: one, that it doesn’t take much to get me excited; and two, that my office was in a disreputable, unusable state.   What is perhaps not readily evident in this photograph is the fair amount of progress that had already taken place in this room.  A month and a half ago it was still sporting its brown trim, popcorn ceiling, and bright blue paint:
Red House West || Ranch Rambler BeforeI have a bad habit of just kind of perching in a space until my plans for it can be realized in one fell swoop.  For instance in this room, I had resigned myself to a pile of book-filled boxes until we’re able to build a shelf to hold them.  No matter that building shelves is a ways down the to-do list (we’re still replacing doors and will be for the foreseeable future – how can such a small house have so many doors?), somehow it didn’t seem like a good use of energy to unpack this room until everything had a place to go.  Except when I found that dingy, mildly busted cabinet my whole outlook changed, and I was suddenly excited to steer this room toward a functional, pretty midway point.

Red House West || A Progress in the Office and a Vintage Vogue Green Cabinet

Red House West || A Progress in the Office and a Vintage Vogue Green CabinetThis was a test run of sorts, the color I chose for the armoire is Vintage Vogue by Benjamin Moore, which is one I’m also considering for the cabinets in our kitchen.  It’s really pretty!  Reminiscent of an army green, but with a nice depth that reads a little more ‘forest’ in dim or shadowed light.

Red House West || A Progress in the Office and a Vintage Vogue Green Cabinet

The cupboard itself is the perfect place to store my printer and scanner, as well as extra paper and other craft supplies.  Unfortunately it doesn’t address my need for a bookshelf, but Beatrice and her bird are doing a good job presiding over the tomes-without-homes.

Red House West || A green cabinet and progress in the office
This room still needs some work, obviously. The new door and trim need to be installed and I’m figuring out a way to organize my fabric and sewing things in the closet, but I couldn’t be happier with the way this weekend project turned out.  My practical self balks a little at the impracticality of stacked books, but a precarious game of Jenga when I want a book is still far preferable to digging through a cardboard box.

Red House West || A Progress in the Office and a Vintage Vogue Green CabinetAnyone else suffer from that “live in squalor until every change can be made at once” attitude? Have a great week!

Painting the Kitchen and a Trip to Farrow & Ball

It’s hard to express how happy I am to be back home in our red house after four months away.  I’m so appreciative of the light and space and the fat furry creatures who live here with us.  I’m also grateful to have an outlet for the considerable energy for household projects that built up while we were gone, and I opened the floodgate this past week by painting my kitchen walls.  Three times.  I felt like Goldilocks: at first it was too shiny, then it was too light, and finally, it was just right.

Red House West:Dark to Light 7

I knew I wanted the blue in the kitchen to be just slightly darker than the dining room.  The difference is subtle enough that it’s not obvious in all light, but to my eye the slightly different tones help delineate the rooms.

Red House West:Dark to Light 9

Uncharacteristically, I didn’t dither about the color at all.  Hale Navy by Benjamin Moore was a strong contender when I was choosing paint for the dining room, and I knew it had just the right depth of color for our kitchen.

So what led me to paint this room three times?  An inability to stop before it was too late.  I began painting with a quart of Hale Navy I had on hand, and managed to get a decent first coat up before it ran out.  When I went to get more, I realized that the paint I’d used had an eggshell finish, rather than matte like the rest of the house.  Did I stop? Nope, I soldiered on.  The finished walls looked like plastic compared to the matte blue of the adjoining dining room, so I decided to redo it – properly this time – and get a gallon of Miller Paint’s Evolution line (which I used and loved in my dining room) color matched to Hale Navy.  After the first coat I was thinking it looked a little light, a little – dare I say it – Smurfy.  Did I stop?  Nope, I soldiered on.  It did not become miraculously darker when it dried, so back I went to the store for the third time.  The folks at Miller Paint were great and mixed up a fresh (correctly tinted) gallon free of charge.  And, thank goodness because I was losing my will to live, the color was just right.

Red House West:Dark to Light 4The real reason I like these dark walls is because they provide such a nice backdrop for this lithograph of Dean (well, a cat that looks a lot like Dean) that I got at the thrift store.  I am in grave danger of becoming someone who collects anything that resembles her furry little darlings.  Help keep me sane folks, but this one was too good to pass up – am I right?  The artist really nailed Dean’s haughty glare.

Red House West::Siamese Cat LithographNext on the agenda is painting the living room.  A couple of weeks ago I shared some Farrow & Ball colors that I really wanted to see in person (but didn’t want to pay shipping costs for),  so I made a detour to downtown Portland on my final trip back from Walla Walla.  It was totally worth the extra hour in the car (I cleverly hit Portland just at rush hour) to go into the cool, clean, industrial-chic boutique and see the lovely displays of Farrow & Ball.  I gotta say that I pretty much felt like Julia Roberts in ‘Pretty Woman’ when she went to the shop on Rodeo Drive in her hooker garb and everyone sneered at her.  Except instead of prostitute garb I was in my comfy but disheveled car clothes.  And the saleslady wasn’t mean to me at all, she just gave me a weird look when I literally purred over the cute little F&B inspiration booklet she gave me.  And of course I’m just somebody who blogs about her house,  not a prostitute with a heart of gold (has there been a worse premise for a movie??) and this parallel is falling apart – BUT I did feel out of place because the store was clean and pretty and I smelled and looked like road trip.  The awkward feelings were worth it though! Just look at the goodie bag I walked out with (this ain’t no hardware store folks).

Farrow & Ball Schwag

So I’m really excited to move forward and get painting, but I admit I’ve been having a little trepidation about the flow between a light-colored living room and the dark-painted dining room/kitchen area.

Red House West::Dark to Light

All the paint colors I’m considering for the living room are much lighter than the current greenish color.

To ease my mind I did an online hunt for rooms with color contrasts similar to the one I’m envisioning for our house.

And now I feel better!  I think it’s going to look just fine.  Thanks for reading along – check back in on Wednesday for a post from Mera!

Katie’s House: Paint Colors for the Living Room

We have just two weeks until our sojourn in Walla Walla ends and we’re back in our red house for good.   I’m so excited!  After consulting the mile-long to-do list, I’ve decided that the very first house project I want to tackle upon return is painting the living room.  The problem?  I’m still not sure just what paint color I want to use, though I do at least know the color family.  I think.

First up, let me give you a little tour so you know what we’re working with.  This room has great bones and a lot of potential.  It is south-facing and filled with incredible light throughout the day.  It is currently painted a soft green – that sometimes reads beige – which is in itself inoffensive, but which doesn’t work at all with our furniture and art, or with the transition into the newly blue dining room.

Red House West - Dining Room_Miller Paint3

Our house was built in 1930, and had a major remodel done in 1960.  They opened up what had previously been a number of small rooms into one large space linked by generous archways.  The room is bisected by the front door and the dining room arch (as seen in the image above, taken from the dining room) which means that though it’s visually a single room, there’s a sort of pathway in the middle where we can’t really have any furniture, so we use it more like two rooms.  Let me show you what I’m talking about:

Paint Ideas for the Living Room 6

Here we are standing by the front door and looking toward the dining room.  I’m sure it’s hard to tear your eyes from the wonder of Beatrice, so let me quickly introduce you.  I found Beatrice (so named because of the artist – Beatrice Roitmann Metrick) at an antique store and for more than a year I would drop in and visit her.  Cameron and my mom teamed up and gave her to me as a gift, and I love her.  I find Beatrice’s heavy-lidded stare serene, my father finds it homicidal, and Cameron loves the bird in the party hat.  Something for everyone.  I think both she, and the orange couch I got on Craigslist, will benefit greatly from a change of wall color.

Here’s a wider view of that part of the room.  That cat-ravaged pink chair?  Fixing it up is number two on that mile-long to-do list.

Paint Ideas for the Living Room 9

If you were to stand next to the couch and look across the room, this is what you would see.  An indoor jungle.  I consolidated most of the houseplants so our housesitter would have an easier time watering them, but I can still admit I *might* have a problem.
Paint Ideas for the Living Room 10

The little alcove where the tulip chair sits was the home’s original front porch; they moved the entrance to its current location in the 1960s.

Paint Ideas for the Living Room 4

We’re definitely still figuring out how best to use the space, but I’ll save thoughts on layout/furnishings for another post.  For now?  Paint!  I’m on the hunt for a soft white or very light gray.  It’s important that the color we choose plays nicely with Beatrice, the couch, and the orange-y fir floors.  It’s also imperative that it work with the linen curtains.  Cameron’s mom and I made them not too long after we moved in and I’ve got no interest in sewing that many hems again any time soon.

First up in the closer-to-white colors I’m considering is Seapearl by Benjamin Moore.  It’s kind of an earthy white with gray/brown (griege) undertones.

Seapearl_swatch

Shown against the fir floors with a swatch of fabric from the curtains

seapearl

Seapearl used in a room.  Image found here.

A nice, creamy white I’ve tried out is Mascarpone, also by Benjamin Moore.  I think it’s whiter than I want for this space -and a bit on the yellow side next to the color of the floors and curtains – but it’s very pretty.

Mascarpone_swatch

portland4square1

Mascarpone used in a room.  Image found here

I really loved the quality of the Miller Paint I used in the dining room, and this light gray color called Crystal Ball is a frontrunner.  Unfortunately there are no images online of this color being used in an actual space.

Crystal Ball_swatch

I’m also very interested in a couple of colors by Farrow & Ball, but there isn’t anywhere in Eugene to buy their paint and shipping expenses for a sample pot are too steep for me to pay.  There are lots of images online, though, and the colors I’m most crushing on are Cornforth White and Blackened.  It might just be worth a road trip to Portland to pick some up.

Farrow_and_Ball_cornforth_white

Cornforth White

Cornforth White by Farrow & Ball. Images found here.

Blackened

Blackened2

Blackened by Farrow & Ball. Images found here.

Have you used any of these colors?  Do you have a clear favorite of the ones I’ve shown or a recommendation of your own?  Thanks for reading along – I’m so excited to paint this room and share it with you!  Make sure to check the blog on Wednesday, Mera made an enviable Craigslist score and will be sharing a couple of really great restoration methods.