Color! These are most…

Color!

These are most of the Farrow & Ball colors from the first floor. Mostly, I love these colors. I'm not sure about the lighter colors -- the pale grey in the front foyer, and the medium grey in the kitchen / mudroom. But I think they'll work well too, when the other elements of the rooms come in. And I love the richness of the clay-based F&B paint; I think we'll feel it's well worth the extra cost. (Definitely a luxury item, but relatively low in cost, compared to, say, luxury tile! :-)

All the ceilings are in the Skimming Stone, unless otherwise specified.

Original painted sheets with palette. Note piece of flooring propped up against the painted sheets.

View from dining room (with just one coat of Brinjal) into hallway (Downpipe) and pantry (Cook's Blue). We decided to follow a Frank Lloyd Wright design principle in the hallway -- make it dark so that as you emerge into the rooms, you get an even more expansive feeling of light. He actually lowered his ceilings in his hallways -- we didn't do that, but we did paint the ceiling in Downpipe too. I was a little nervous about that, but I really enjoy the effect, as it turns out. Yay! (Some of these design decisions, you're not so sure of initially.)

They quickly put a second coat of Brinjal on -- I think that's going to be the only one of our colors will will require three coats total. The rest are getting great coverage with even the first coat, and the second should finish them nicely. The is the view from the dining room into the hallway and to the powder room (Brassica). There's only paint on the upper walls in there because we're planning on anaglytpa below a chair rail. Not sure what color we'll be painting the anaglypta --stay with the purple tones of Brassica? Go darker with a grey? The anaglypta (Heaton) has a large floral pattern; I'm aiming for a sort of delicate, pretty feel to that room.

Dining room to family room (Hague Blue), and back in the other direction.

Fireplace detail -- I made a stained glass piece to go in there, but now am not sure it'll actually look good. We'll see. I can always consider it a practice piece and start over -- I'm much less invested in it now, a year later. :-)

Kitchen and mudroom (Pavilion Gray). Not the most exciting color, but with the blue cabinets (Benjamin Moore Buckland Blue), stainless appliances, and zinc countertop / dark oak island, I think it'll work well. I hope! We'll see better next week, when the kitchen gets installed. Originally, I was planning to do the mudroom area in a lighter shade of grey, but we ended up deciding that it would have a lighter feel anyway, since there are so many windows over there, and the room would feel less modern if we didn't do a color change partway through. (Obviously, having a kitchen flowing to mudroom is already not so period-appropriate, but we're not going for authenticity throughout. Thankfully. :-)

View from kitchen through hallway to foyer. (Pavilion Gray to Downpipe to Blackened).

A little of the front parlor (Minster Green), looking into the foyer (Blackened). The foyer walls are only painted halfway down, again, since we will have anaglypta below. Again, we need to choose a color for the anaglypta (Maxwell). Tentatively thinking we'll just paint it in Blackened and let the transition be subtle. But a richer, more dramatic option might be to pick up the Chinese Blue for the anaglypta. Hmm...

A little bit of the foyer (Blackened), looking up the stairs, foyer ceiling in Chinese Blue.

My painter told me, by the way, that there's a southern U.S. legend that says you should paint your porch or foyer ceiling in blue. It's meant to look like water and keep the haints (spirits) out of your house, making you safe from their influence, since haints can't cross water. Cool.

I think the only things I didn't take a picture of was the airlock space, which is painted in Pelt (a deep purple) above the chair rail, and my turret office ceiling, which is painted in Drawing Room Blue (a deep pure blue). More photos in a bit. But before that -- reclaimed wide-plank pine floors bathed in tung oil! Coming soon!