Our Home Tour + How I Chose Colors & Painters!

Hey friends! Hope your holidays are off to a great start and that Christmas was the highlight celebration of all the festivities. We have been anxiously awaiting Christmas morning at home with our 4 little ones and that’s exactly what we got this year! It was extra special to wake up (soooo early) in our new home with a few exciting things around the Christmas tree. We created new memories here in this house and then spent the evening with my parents and 3 of my 5 siblings eating way too much food and having way too much fun playing games. We love having family near-by and couldn’t imagine it any other way!

I am THRILLED to share with you the beginning stages of renovating our home! Today I’ll talk with you about the first phase, painting. If you’ve been following along in my Instagram stories, you’ll see that I’ve been working with a few different brands/installers for various projects and unfortunately I can’t recommend them all. (I’m definitely not shy about sharing my opinion to save someone else some heart-ache!) Especially some tile work I just had done. I pride myself with honest feedback because I know how frustrating it can be to have sub-par or botched jobs done. Which is why I’m so excited to share with you my experience in working with Five Star Painting services. They were the creme de la creme of hiring a painting service. Let me pause and rewind by explaining that we personally painted every room (a few of them twice!) in our last home. To say that painting ourselves had burned us out would be a huge understatement. 1 coat of primer + 4 coats of paint to turn my white kitchen into a cherry cobbler kitchen while pregnant with my first was uh-mazing. And then 5 years later, we turned that cherry red cobbler kitchen back into a cozy white kitchen which was even more fun…again with multiple coats of paint mixed with a whole lot of scary pink mixed in. When we paint ourselves, we makes messes, we go through wayyyy more paint than what’s necessary, and it takes for-e-ver. About 6 years ago we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our 1st baby and we had Five Star Paint re-paint the baby’s nursery since we painted it too light of a grey that it couldn’t even be seen. I had chosen the wrong color! And then Aaron tried to correct it by painting a cloud-like texture which looked horribly wrong (sorry babe!). We had Five Star Painting come out and they had it fixed in no time, it looked amazing, and somehow they had left-over paint from 1 gallon instead of the 2.5 gallons we had just used to paint it not-grey. I knew this brand did solid work in a timely manner.

For this new house, we asked them to paint our front entry foyer, office, dining room, kitchen walls and cabinets, great living room, staircase, large upstairs loft, laundry room, doors, and the hallways into the kid’s bedrooms, including all the trims and ceilings in each space. It took 6 full days of painting with their awesome crews. The manager met with us at the home and we walked through the house as he pointed out each and every surface in detail to record which paint color needs to be painted throughout. He offered lots of insight on sheens of paint. It was such a great experience and after the initial walk-through, we again felt as though we were in good hands. The 1st day was spent entirely on taping off the entire house and floors, while also sanding the cabinets in prep for fresh paint. After that, we received a steady stream of daily pictures to update us on the painting progress. Again, this helped my curiosity (and anxiety) wondering how things were going. At the end, the project manager again walked us through the house and we looked together for the smallest details that could be perfected. They sent out their best crew for one last finishing session and it was done! I cannot recommend Five Star Painting enough. They are locally owned franchises all over the US and some in Canada, so you can find them wherever you are! For the new year (2018 already??) they’re doing a giveaway for a free room (up to $1000 value!)! Click the link and enter by February 23, 2018 for a chance to see how awesome they are!

Now on to the color choices and before/after photos.

BLACK PAINT

Using black was the last thing I would’ve imagined using for our new home. And if the color isn’t what you’d ever consider painting a feature or even wall with, then it’s definitely worth thinking again. It’s especially great at hiding flaws or uneven textures. Or home is fairly new so I simply wanted to use black to add drama and interest to specific pieces. I wanted my eyes to be drawn up and so I kept the ceilings and molding a nice pure white. The room would’ve felt oppressive and cave-like had I gone dark. Choosing a black color and sheen will vary considerably depending on the undertones and vibe in your home. I felt like the black brought a contemporary look to my traditional interior.

I chose a black with a red undertone, “Black” by Behr for all black accents in the home. In our last house, we used pretty much every paint brand. Liked some, hated some, but Behr was always our favorite. It looked new even after 6 years and 3 crazy toddlers. We love the paint + primer since it does a great job in less coats! (Definitely did not use Behr for the terrible 5-coat kitchen fiasco.) My great living room is south facing, so the room needs warmth to make the black appear less dull. I don’t have a ton of natural light and so the red undertone will easily make the warm black feel inviting. If the room was very well lit then I would’ve chosen a cooler blue undertone since the extra light would’ve pulled the blue color from black. Lighting and undertone is EVERYTHING when choosing colors since all blacks are not made equal. This Black is also a lighter hue than a stark chalkboard black color.

Next to consider is the sheen of paint! Gloss Vs. Matte. I ultimately went with a semi-gloss. I wanted a more matte look, but the staircase gets a lot of hand traffic from my 4 littles, so having a paint that’s highly washable and durable pushed us to that choice! Since the actual hand railing was stained wood before, it had to be sanded, primed, and then painted, so it actually turned out slightly less glossy than the spindles, which I love!

WHITE PAINT

When choosing the paint color for the majority of our home, I had the same approach as I did with choosing the perfect black color. I decided I wanted a warm, inviting modern home without being oppressive, dated, and heavy. I hoped the space would feel bright, airy and open! Then, I considered how much natural light surrounded the room. There’s not a ton due to the back porch rooftop partially shading the sun from pouring into the living room windows. This means I didn’t want to use a cool, blue undertone in this space to avoid appearing cold and dull. Had there been lots of natural light then I would’ve gone with a cool undertone since the light would neutralize the blue undertone. Does that make sense? How you want to feel in the room and the light available are the 2 most important things you’ll want to consider when choosing a paint colors.

To start with, the home was already painted with a biscuit colored paint that had a heavy yellow base. You can also see the blue accent wall in the living room photo below. To keep with the vibe of the home I wanted to create, we scratched it all and used a white-on-white palate with “Nano White” by Behr (Satin) for all of the walls and ceilings while using “Ultra Pure White” by Behr (Semi-gloss) for the baseboards, trim and kitchen cabinets. I wanted to unite the walls and ceilings by having the same color painted on. The ceiling is vaulted at an angle which allows the light to hit the ceiling with almost the same brightness as the walls. Had the ceiling received less light than the walls then I would’ve used a different strength of white to match the brightness of the walls. To inject softness into the south-facing room, this warm white has a red undertone and encourages the room to feel cozy. I’ll keep with this family of white colors by also playing with textures by adding organic shades, limewash wood floors, and earthy light-colored couches. I can’t wait!

We bleed blue in this family! Go Cougs! My heart has been pulled to a deep, saturated navy paint color for the kitchen island. I chose “Starless Night” by Behr (Semi-gloss). Which just so happens to be a true BYU blue <wink wink>. Aaron and I were college sweethearts and so this is a fun accent to our home. Next month we’ll do quite a bit of work on the kitchen including new brushed brass hardware, acrylic bar stools, a farmhouse sink, open shelving, pendant lighting, a perisan-like floor runner, new backsplash and countertops. It’ll be quite the renovation and I can’t wait!! I also can’t wait to eat fast food for a few weeks straight, ha!

Here’s a shot of our front foyer and double doors into the office. I had them add a bit of drama to the doors by painting them black. I was worried how well the paint job would look but it turned out perfectly spot on! I was so impressed with their work. I also had my husband and brother-in-law create a fun wooden accent wall in the office using different lengths of wood to create panels. I’ll plan on doing this wall in our bedroom since I love it so much! And I can certainly share another blog post with a DIY tutorial for you to create this same look in your home. I think we spent about $70 on materials, it’s very affordable!

Thank you to my awesome sponsors, Five Star Paint & Behr, for partnering with me in my home renovation! As always, all opinions are entirely my own. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that help Hello Ivory Rose!