I've blogged about the Pinnochio Room in our house before. It has bugged me for a while whether to embrace the wood moldings and millwork and live with it, or to just paint it all together and open the room up in color. I have really liked the cozy library feel the wood gives the room. But, painting has been on my mind since day one. I figured since I can't stop thinking about how the room would look dressed in ivory and cream, that was a sure sign it is meant to be painted. So, I decided for the new year that would be my first resolution I would keep.
Paint the living room.
Well, painting anything obviously means picking a paint color. I want the room to be a creamy white. Sounds easy enough, right? No way. There are way too many whites available out there, and I think I went through half of them... Not really, but it began to feel that way. The rest of our trim is a soft off-white/creamy color, but it isn't yellow. I knew I didn't want Asylum White, or Hospital Bed Linen, or Highway Reflector Bright White, but I also didn't want Buttercup Baby or Big Bird Surprise either. And so the testing began... and when I get my mind to something, I cannot stop until it is completed. So my mission this week was to find the right color.
Aside from bringing home 20 something paint chips.. I actually tested out several small paint pods.
I tried Glidden Antique White:
I tried Behr Creamy White:
I tried Behr Innocence:
I tried Behr Polished Pearl:
Now, if you are my husband, you swear these are all the same exact color. I promise they are not. Maybe it is just a curse that I can see a whole range of colors. It would be easier if I were color blind. But, I definitely am the opposite of that as I have way too many opinions about colors. Antique White- it has just a touch of creamy tan to it, but is mostly still white. Almost like a dull piece of paper. Creamy White- I didn't see the cream in this at all. It was the whitest of the bunch. A step up from Creamy White is Innocence- the paint guy told me Creamy White has two drops of yellow in it, and Innocence has 4 to 5. Well, Innocence is pretty, but it was a bit too yellow for me. Like I said, I was not wanting Buttercup Baby or Big Bird Surprise. ( I promise there are 4 colors on these boards...)
And then, I tried Polished Pearl. This was very, very close to Innocence, but has more of a gray/taupe undertone to it, making it less yellowy and more creamy.
It almost was the winner... until night fell. At night, it just seemed too bright to me. I still want this room to feel somewhat cozy. I don't know, the brightness bothered me enough that I wanted to go a few shades deeper into the off-white world.
So, in the morning I thought I'd try again. This time, going to the garage to fumble through old paint cans. I found what I thought to be the same color as our kitchen cabinets, and I like that color. It is called Windswept by Benjamin Moore.
You can't tell from this picture, I know, but it is a really good creamy color. I'd compare it to white chocolate. So, I accomplished picking out a paint color.
Phew.
Along with the task of changing the room's look is to paint the grasscloth... or remove it altogether. I tried painting it first to avoid unwanted work of scraping and pulling it from the walls. At first, I thought it was going to work out. But then, I realized something was happening that all the blogs and how-to sites warned me about when painting this funky stuff... BUBBLES. This just won't do.
Sometimes, the paint will seep through the cloth. Depends on your wallpaper. If you have the real stuff like we do, which is literally strands of straw stuff stapled onto fabric and glued to the walls, the paint tends to seep through the strands of straw and back behind the paper, creating unwanted bubble effect, and pulling the strands away from the wall. Not good. So now, we'll be removing the paper. Hubs wanted the grasscloth gone the day we moved in. He has never liked the stuff. He doesn't like texture at all. If it were up to him, our whole house would be made of stainless steel and all the walls would be brown and beige. :)
And that's our big plans for this weekend, removing the grasscloth and sanding the rest of the wood (which I've already sanded half the room, at least we have part of it done, right?). Happy New Year!
