bye bye blues

The May 2010 issue of Style at Home featured a living room with a wall colour very similar to ours. It's true what they say . . . eventually everything comes back into style.

But we are not that stylish. The robin egg blue had to go, to be replaced with a soft white.

Choosing the right white was agonizing. There are hundreds of different shades of white. Some are bright white. Some are creamy white. Some are more gray.

After much soul searching (by me) we settled on Cloud White by Benjamin Moore.

Covering the blue took a lot more paint that we originally anticipated. The staff at the paint store promised we would only need two coats, and 4 gallons. It took three quotes, and over 8 gallons. We kept having to run back to the store to buy more. By the end, the staff recognized us when we walked in the door and started  giving us the discount normally reserved for interior decorators and professional painters.

In the end it was worth it. Painting the walls was the most dramatic change we made to the house.

before . . .

. . .and after

I love the second photo because it shows how far we've come. Look how smooth the ceiling is; how shiny the floor is; and how bright the room looks. You might notice that it's not completely finished - there's a baseboard is missing. But that is a whole other story.