The Fixer Upper - Paint Colours

P.S. I guess I took a bit of a blog break. I'll share why in one of my annoying 25 Things posts (like here, here, here, and here).

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So remember when we bought the Fixer Upper? I haven't posted any updates lately but that doesn't mean that work has stopped over there. In fact, work has been going pretty steadily since we bought the place only three months ago.

 

One thing we decided to do to save time and effort once we took possession of the house was to hire out the painting. I know that painting is something we could have easily done ourselves, but with a newborn baby and a very tight timeline before Al's parents moved in, it freed up Alex to work on other, more important projects.

 

The whole house had been primed but still needed two coats of paint on the walls and ceilings of the living room, kitchen/dining room, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and two hallways. We kind of lucked out because my cousin (who is a painter) agreed to do the work for us and gave us a super deal.

 

Alex's parents were kind enough to give me free reign over choosing the paint colours since they know that it's kinda my thing. Oh yeah.

 

There were some things I had to take into account when choosing the colours, though. Let me explain.

 

Consideration #1

 

I had to take into account that The Fixer Upper is a rental property, not a flip or another house for me to decorate, so cost was a factor. It was quite a bit cheaper to buy 5-gallon tubs of paint than to buy individual gallons. That's part of the reason we decided to go with only three paint colours: the ceiling/trim/door colour, the first story colour, and the second story colour. The other reason we decided to only use three colours is because I prefer when room colours are consistent and sort of flow together.

 

Consideration #2

 

I also had to choose colours that would coordinate with Alex's parents furnishings and traditional decor style.

 

Consideration #3

 

In the main living / dining / kitchen area the granite countertop (which is really nice but not the colour or material I would have chosen) has lots of browns, golds, and yellows in it.

 

So, here was my inspiration picture for the main floor:

 

Image: Frugal Farmhouse Design

 

I was looking for a neutral, tan-y, beige-y colour that would provide a bit of contrast with the white trim, but would coordinate with brown couches and brown, speckled granite.

 

The colour I chose is a Para Paint colour called Soaker Tub. Here is a picture of the living room wall painted with it:

 

The Fixer Upper - Paint Colour: Soaker Tub

 

I think it's a pretty close match to my inspiration photo even though I had no idea what my inspiration colour was called. (Sorry for the low quality iPhone pic, it's all I have right now.)

 

When choosing the colour for the second floor, I had to choose a colour that would work well with the main floor colour since both colours would meet at the top of the stairs. I decided to go with another Para Paint colour from Sarah Richardson's collection called Cashmere:

 

 

Sarah Richardson did a kitchen (that I love!) in it which you can see here:

 

Image: House and Home

 

Jen from Rambling Renovaters (whose blog I love and am stalking because they are in the midst of a basement renovation) wrote a post about how it was the perfect grey and used it in her living room: 

 

Image: Rambling Renovators

Here is a quick snapshot (oops, another iPhone pic) of the colour in one of the upstairs bedrooms:

 

The Fixer Upper - Paint Colour: Cashmere

 

The colour we chose for the ceilings/walls/trim is another Para Paint colour: Chrysler Hall White.

 

I'm really happy with how all of the colours turned out. They are all very subtle and neutral, just what I like.

 

Taking some updated Fixer Upper photos in on my to-do list. So hopefully I can share some better quality photos sometime soon.

 

Other than that, I'm out for today. Gotta brush the pups, bath the baby, shower myself, take everyone for a walk, fold laundry, and I may or may not be able to squeeze anything else in. Have a lovely day, I missed you!