In the way of construction we, at this point, may or may not have walls this week. (Read: no chance in hell we have walls this week.) Which I would like to blame on our heating guy who was supposed to show up tomorrow to fill our geo system with glycol, but probably won’t. Except the last I heard our interior geo pipes are leaking so it might be a good thing that they don’t show up for a few more days. It still pisses me off, but at least my head probably won’t explode into a shower of hate-colored confetti tomorrow when they aren’t here.

However, the fact that we might have walls in the next couple of weeks made me realize that at some point in the near future I will have to do something with them. Like paint, maybe.

And this is where the great interior design portion of my life begins. So far the only room in the entire house I can picture clearly is the mudroom, which we’re using some of this gorgeous old wood and a barn door as design elements in. Things get a little fuzzy after that.

So I decided it was high time I sat down and got at least a rough plan for some of the colors I’d like to use in the house. Because Memorial has a pretty open floor plan (I can see all the way into the master bath from the living room if I’m lined up just right) I wanted all of the colors to have some sense of continuity.

About the only thing I know regarding how we’re going to finish this place off, is that I want it to have natural colors– I think we’ll end up a little bit rustic, a little bit industrial, and all the way comfy, in the end. With that in mind I dug into Benjamin Moore’s* virtual paint swatches to pick out things that appealed to me.

After 27 swatches, I had to stop myself:

That was a bit of a marathon, so I’m not going to lie– I poured myself a big glass of red wine and got down to the business of culling these down to a more reasonable number.

Like seventeen.

Seventeen colors is reasonable, right?

They won’t all be colors on the walls– some may be accents, and some may just stay a twinkle in my little eye– but admittedly, it’s still a bit of a mish-mash. After a big glass of wine you start getting all sorts of good ideas… in this case that meant dropping swatches onto actual rooms in our floorplan.

I think we might go pretty consistenly with Early American stain on the wood floors, windows, and great-room ceiling. We used that color on the Station ceiling and it turned out pretty good. So this alcohol-induced idea was actually pretty good in that I started to see where I might want to run colors from one room to the next, or how I’d like them to compliment each other.

Some things I really started to like on here were:

• The bathroom colors in the first floorplan
• The use of the darker blue in the study and entrance of the first floorplan
• The way the great room, study, bathroom, and bedroom colors go together in the second floorplan
• The kitchen/mudroom colors in the second floorplan

I’m still not loving the master bedroom in either version, and I definitely haven’t figured out the right combo of things that should be the same color, and things that should be different– and regardless you know this will all change once there is actual paint going on actual walls, but it’s definitely helping me with the planning process now.

Are there any colors you guys are loving lately that might fit into my scheme? Any thoughts on good bedroom colors?  I’m always up for good color advice.

*I’m not particular to Benjamin Moore paints or colors for any reason, but my absolute favorite paint store in town is John’s Color Concepts and they’re a Benjamin Moore shop so I figure starting with them will make my life easier in the long run.

This is the post I was supposed to write yesterday before I had a little meltdown. Speaking of which, thanks for all of your advice on de-stressing. Also thanks to Sara from RussetStreetReno who made me fall off my chair in laughter with this comment:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, stressed, crazy, brain fade, but…..you were wearing a SKIRT??

I’m still chuckling.

I spent some QT with my donkeys and my guy yesterday, and I took today off today(which I’d been planning to do all week) to build a cabinet for my moms bathroom. Really, nothing relaxes me like getting a little sawdust flying. Oh, AND I GOT THE SIDING ORDERED. Take that, universe.

So, anyway. It’s back to just the usual garden-variety insanity today, coupled with house-color anxiety.

I don’t know how most people do this… go into building a house with the exact colors planned out? Have an architect or designer pick them? Granted, we’ve not ever been 100% sold on an exterior color of the house, but after picking the windows, then the roof, then the fascia, I thought things might be starting to come together. But that last little bit of staining/painting I thought we would do the old fashioned way – buy some sample quarts of paint and patch tests all over the house.

I was prepared to not have to worry about it for a while. Except the lumber-yard was prepared to factory stain and prime everything at a very reasonable cost, and it’s very possible that we’re going to run out of time on this before winter.

Which is a really long winded explanation for how I ended up doing this yesterday:

Checking stain colors against the roof.

Against the doors.

Checking the house color against the fascia.

And prompting the neighbor to come over and ask me what in the hell I’m doing.

Then, since I was having trouble visualizing, I did some hasty and crappy photoshopping to help:

I showed this to MysteryMan yesterday and he was all, “it looks like water.” And I’m all, “yeah, well it’s supposed to look like wood siding.” Sheesh, do I look like Rembrandt with my mouse over here? Try squinting a little, I think that helps.

Dude is still pulling for green siding.

I remain unconvinced.

We’re also struggling with corner boards of the house, and whether or not they should be the same color as the siding, or if they should be the same color as the trim.

And if we do that, do we also do the sill as well?

Honestly, I think neither. I like the house without vertical breaks, and it keeps the emphasis on our timberfame porch. Maybe. Maybe I have no idea what I’m talking about.

So here are the exterior color questions that remain for us:

1. What color are we going to paint the exterior siding?
2. Do we paint the “corner” boards to match the fascia and window trim?
3. Do we paint the sill to match the fascia and window trim?
4. Should I just start drinking at… 10:44 AM… and avoid making any more decisions for the rest of eternity?

At some point I’m going to want to be able to cook somewhere other than the back yard. Possibly.

And that’s going to require doing some serious work to this room…

So, I’m thinking of keeping the linoleum. Right?

Okay, no. I’m actually thinking of buying cabinets. With the wood ceiling in the great room, and some seriously gorgeous wood floors I hope to be able to afford in the next, oh, five years, I decided wood cabinets were going to be going a little too monochromatic.

I have nothing against log-cabins, but I want more contrast in our house.

I want painted. I want distressed. I want black cabinets. Or white cabinets. Definitely black. Eh, I really like the versatility of the white. And welcome to my brain for the last four weeks.

I’ve been trying to solve this dilemma by perusing kitchen photographs at my leisure. And by “perusing at my leisure” I mean that I’ve started manically hoarding design magazines like an old lady hoards cats. It’s become a compulsion.

Black

This inspirational image is from Hooked On Houses, and I think these cabinets are technically blue. But I can picture them black, so that’s all that matters.

Oh, and I’m in love with them.

And these. I’m not opposed to having a wood island, and in fact I have delusions of grandeur when it comes to thinking I can build the island myself.

I really love the black with the wood floors and ceilings.

But then…. then there’s this.

White

Ever since I first saw this “practical magic” inspired kitchen months ago, I’ve had an overwhelming urge to look these people up, bring my sleeping bag over, and live in this kitchen for the rest of my life.

You just can’t beat the cream and dark wood, with contrasting floors. And that oven that costs more than the foundation of our entire house.

Looks good with the darker wood floors.

And makes a perfect country kitchen. I do live in the country you know. Where there are mice. That make little mice-forts in my shoes. I think the mice would like this kitchen.

Something Else Entirely

So I was totally dead-set on having black or white cabinets. Until I saw this picture and then offered our first three children to have that refrigerator. That range hood. Seriously. Seriously?

I’m not cut out for building from scratch. I’ll take a nice avocado-green kitchen that needs a little paint and love any day. And way less decisions.

What’s your vote… black cabinets or white ones? Or do I blow my entire cabinet budget on that refrigerator and just store the dishes in cardboard boxes next to it for the next, oh, three decades?

Seeing as how every joint and corner in the Station has been taped an mudded, its time for MysteryMan to move onto staining and varnishing the wood for the ceiling while I continue on my texturing rampage.

We chose wood for 3 reasons.

1.) Sweet Zeus, not a chance in hell I’m putting drywall up there. Once was enough.

2.) We think the look fits the rustic man-cave feel of the place

3.) As with everything else in the Station, we’re practicing for the house. If we like the look, we’re considering using it in the mini-great room in the house.

Like this, but with a smaller piano. And ceiling height.

I like the warm look as opposed to big white vaulted ceilings. And actually, I like the color of that one as well, and just try replicating that with Minwax.

Not. Easy.

I made the mistake on Garrison to “mix stains” to achieve the perfect dark wood to match my trim. It takes a coat of dark walnut, and then two of  a mahogany stain/poly combo to get the right color, and it’s worth knocking my head against the wall for at least five minutes every time I want to touch-up a piece of wood.

So I promised myself Memorial would have a standard stain color, even though I don’t want all my wood to be matchy-matchy.

So much easier said than done.

Sometimes I think all of you who take the white paintbrush to your trim are on to something.

The overall feel of Memorial will be “rustically elegant” as my aunt puts it.

I’m not sure any of these colors qualify. Like the sear-your-eyeballs out orange in the middle? Yeah, not so much.

I want to keep the wood color lighter with out the washed-out pine look and I’m having trouble finding the sweet spot between, not enough color, way too much color, and is that pink? Because no way will MysteryMan tolerate pink wood on the ceiling, and for that matter, neither will I.

Favorite stain colors anyone?