The Basement: Final Countdown!

It's paint week!

I'm FINALLY going to see some colour on the basement walls over the next few days!

The flooring will be installed by the end of the month. So I'm finally seeing an end in sight to this basement development project which we started last November. I can't wait to move all the kiddie stuff down there and give us some breathing room on our main floor. Not to mention that I'll have 5 new rooms to decorate! So exciting.

There was a bit of a delay in the painting over the past few weeks (partly because of some extra trim work I requested  - don't tell my husband!), which allowed me some more time to (re)consider my colour choices.  Not sure if that's a good or bad thing!  Those colour chips were just about everywhere with me last week!

Here's what I'm going with:

• Benjamin Moore "Ashley Gray" above white beadboard
• Benjamin Moore "Rapture" (a deep red) on a feature wall that runs through the entire space
• Benjamin Moore "Blue Bonnet" (a really whispy shade of light turquoise)

Here are a few shots of our progress over the past couple of weeks!

Beadboard installed on the staircase.  Love it.

Can't wait to paint that frosted door a shade of turquoise!

Fireplace and flat screen to be installed here :-)

 

Be sure to come back again soon to see how it comes together!


 

How to Brief a Painter

Have you ever had a painter botch a room with the wrong colour?

Well, perhaps I'm just unlucky, but it's happened to me more than once.  Take for instance when we were just days away from moving into our new home (a few years ago), and my then 3-year old daughter's room was mistakenly painted blue instead of bubble gum pink.  Of all mistakes! She wasn't at all impressed. Of course, it was re-painted just under the wire of our closing date.

   This time around with our basement development project, I'm going to try and avoid any more painting bloopers. I've devised what I hope is a fool-proof briefing method. I must say, it's really high tech.  Just kidding; it's soooo not.  It's actually so obvious that I can't believe I hadn't thought of it earlier.  

Drum roll please...

Hooray for Post-it notes!

Given that my colour scheme involves three colours + white, AND that we are planning bead board on some walls, and accent walls in other areas, I figure that there's a fair chance our painter could screw things up if I leave it to his memory.  (I'm not giving him much credit, am I?  Poor guy. Well, you know what they say: once bitten, twice shy.)  

I've made my instructions really simple for him to follow by placing post-it notes on each wall with the correct colour name and code.  

This also allows him to more easily judge how much of each paint colour he needs to purchase.

This exercise was actually a really helpful method for 'visualizing' the transitions from one colour to another throughout the space.  

Once I had all my initial post-its up, I lived with my colour choices for a few days. Each time I walked through the space, I ended up 'seeing' something problematic.  So I'd just pull off the post-it note, and replace it with another colour until I was finally happy with it.

Easy peasey.

So the next time you need to brief a painter, pull out your post-its and start sticking.  It's fool-proof.  I hope!

 Until next time, happy decorating,

Picking Paint: When The Love is Gone

I love decorating, but I have to tell ya, picking paint colours is pretty low on my list of favorite tasks.

For me, it's a love-hate, ying-yang kinda thing. Excitement and apprehension. Gittyness and dread.

Right now, I'm trying to make some paint decisions for my basement development project and the love is gone. I'm really not having fun anymore.  Actually, let's be honest. I'm in paint chip hell.


I've been through Behr's, Martha Stewart's, and Benjamin Moore's entire decks.

I mean how many shades of gray and taupe and green can one brain really process at once? Does there really need to be a gazillion?  Did they miss the memo on information overload?

And, by the way,  why do they call something "tan" when it is clearly gray? Or "gray" when it it so obviously tan?  I swear it's a conspiracy just to fool us into buying more paint when the "gray-you-thought-was-gray-because-it-was-called-gray" was actually tan when you put it on the wall ;-).

Am I making this all too complicated? Because it wouldn't be the first time, lol.

Did I mention that I tend to analyze?  And, over-analyze?

And maybe my professional background has tainted me.  In in advertising and communications, colour selection is a critical element in persuasion; as much an art as a science. The psychology of a particular hue - from it's undertone to it's intensity - can be endlessly debated before a final decision is made.

But (tapping head with knuckles) it's just my basement, not a 7-figure ad campaign.  I mean, really. What's the big deal if I choose Providence Olive over Sag Harbour Gray?  Will the sky come crashing down?

That's it.  I am putting my five short-listed  paint chips in a hat and having my 6-year old pick one.


(Fingers crossed, she picks Providence Olive. Or, Sag Harbour Gray.  Or...)

Basement Reno: An Update!

It seems like forever ago that I first posted about our *big* house project this year - developing the basement in our new home into living space.

We started the project back in November, and 5 months later, it is really only beginning to come together.

All I can say is that in my next life I'd like to come back as a contractor or a plumber or a plasterer or a painter. It must be sweet! They're the only professions where "I'll be there on Tuesday" actually means "See you three Tuesdays from now" (if that) and it's somehow acceptable, or perhaps just 'accepted'.

But I digress. ;-)

Things seem to be moving along nicely now, fingers crossed. Everything's been insulated and dry-walled.

Yaaaaawn.  I feel sleepy just looking at these shots.


Being the decor addict I am, I'm just itching to get on with it. I want to see paint, I want colour, I want to design the trim work, I want to order furniture, I want to make wall art!  If you could see my brain right now, it would look like this. (Actually, my brain looks like this a lot, hee hee)...

My (rough) vision for the space.

The plan for the basement includes a TV room, a playroom, a guest room, a full bathroom, and mud room.  But here's the super exciting part: We'll be moving the (current) upstairs playroom down there.

That means that with any luck my main level will no longer look like this...

Well, OK, the boys can stay, but that tent has to go!

or like this...

Those steel Tonka trucks have a lifetime warranty - too bad my furniture doesn't!

                    






















or this...

Currently in our living room, along with all of Miss G's 38 Barbies and their clothes.

And it also leaves an empty room on the main floor that will become...drum roll please...my craft room!  I already have a small office/craft room off our master, but it's too crammed for all my stuff.  This new space will give me lots more space to hide out work on projects.

Look at all that storage just awaiting my craft supplies!

And it even has built in cabinets and counter-top!

I'm thinking it'll be a least another 6 weeks before the space is livable. Can't wait to show you the before and afters.  Well OK, you just saw the 'befores'.  I wouldn't want to bore you with that again! I'll just show you 'afters'.

Until next time, happy decorating.