How to choose interior paint colors?

How does one go about planning interior paint colors for an entire house all at once?  I know I have mentioned this before in an earlier post...but this question is still weighing me down.  I feel like I need to know exactly what color I am going to paint all 12 rooms+hallways in my 3300 sq ft house....and the sooner the better!  

After searching many great blogs, I did come across a great blog post at www.emilyaclark.com today.  She shared that sometimes using the various colors on a single paint strip would give a cohesive look to your whole house.  She used the same Sherwin Williams paint strip to paint all the rooms in her current house.

www.emilyaclark.com

I really like this idea!  It gives an overall color scheme that will definitely compliment room to room, while allowing other colors to be added with accesories.  I could then add additional color to the walls later, as I spend more time in the space.  I think this might really work, or atleast start me in the right direction.

I have really gravitated lately towards the color trend of Gray as a great neutral paint color.  I am SO over all white walls (1st house), and creamy yellow, burgundy, and sage green walls (2nd house).  My current home is creamy yellow with greens and blues.  This time around, I want a simple color scheme that remains flexible and lets pillows, art, and other accessories shine through.  Which brings me back to the many shades of Gray.  

I actually found a swatch of fabric today that I would love to use in my dining room someday, that would pull the Gray color together with my antique red transferware dishes.  I think this fabric would look amazing as floor to ceiling curtain panels in a room with soft, gray walls and white trim.  I like that this fabric has green in it, since that is another color I would like to use in the mudroom.

Arabella

I guess it is unrealistic to think that I would have the whole house figured out by now, but I really needed a place to start.  My mind is resting a little bit easier.

Has anyone else ever had to pick their paint colors for the whole house all at once?  Did you go with different colors, or stick with just one neutral color throughout?

I'm dreaming of a pantry...

I'm sure you have noticed by now, in previous photos, that there is a wall of pantry cabinets in the hallway by the back stairs and desk area. It is one of the many things that I fell in love with when we first walked through the house. My husband just wants to keep the existing built-in cabinets, however they are poorly constructed and have very random door sizes. I'm just not absolutely happy with them.  I could live with them, but will most likely regret not changing them while I have the chance.  Here's a picture of the pantry cabinets now:

What I'm picturing is something more uniform in size, and includes drawers as well as cabinets.  I want something that will look like it's original to the house.  Here are some examples of pantry storage that I really like:

www.houzz.com

www.bhg.com

Farmhouse Hall by Traverse City General Contractors MAC Custom Homes

I think that addition of drawers will help organize those "little" items that can get lost in pantry cupboards, such as seasoning packets, birthday candles, boxes of tea, bags of chopped nuts for baking, etc.  I can't even imagine filling up all that space, but I tell you...when all the kids are home...food goes fast around here.  Having all that space will help keep me stocked, organized, and ready for whatever family and friends come over.  Garry and I like to make homemade jams, and would like to start canning tomatoes.  I think we would have plenty of storage for those as well.

Are wishing you had more adequate pantry space?  Do you have pantry drawers and love them?  Do you have any tips on what would help keep a pantry organized?  Please share...I'd love to hear from you!

Dreaming of a mudroom...

Ok...so who would not LOVE to have a 20'x7' laundry/mudroom?!  That's right...that's what I've got, plus a full bath with a walk-in shower (just rubbing it in!).  Now, if i had only had that when my kids were younger.  Oh well, moving on.

So, how to organize that space to maximize the storage, function, and usability?  Never fear...I've been dreaming of just that!  Here's what the space looks like now:

And here's what I'm planning to do along the long wall without the window...

And along the other wall will be some thing like this...



....and this....

Both of the above images were found on www.decorpad.com

So...what do you think?  Now, cabinet color and countertop finishes are yet to decided...but I just love the style of the above two photos!  And as a bonus, I was playing around with a free app on my iPad called Room Arranger and created this design:

In the above arrangement, the outside door to enter the mudroom is at the end on the right. The wall of cabinets will be located to the left of the door, and the coat hooks will be on the right.  Just past the coat hooks is a countertop space under the window, and just between that space and the coat hooks will be an under-the-counter mini-refrigerator for our eggs (once we get chickens again).  Then further down on the right, you see the sink, washer, and dryer.  At the end of the room is the bathroom, with an envisioned sliding barn/rustic door to close that space.  The other "pocket door" space shown is the doorway into the kitchen.  I hope that all make sense?  I really need to figure out how to add arrows or numbers into a photo so that you would know exactly where I was talking about!!

Can you imagine how nice this space will be?  Can you understand now when I say that once we get this house finished, I will never move again?!  Yup, that's why.

Dreaming of a master bathroom...

Our "miracle" house did not come with a master bathroom or a walk-in closet.  That's a slight problem, since we know from experience that not having those two things can make it difficult to sell your house later on.  Our house in Tecumseh had one full bathroom on the upstairs level, shared with all four bedrooms.  Funny how people don't like that.  Garry and I have never in our married life had a master bathroom.  For real.  SO...with this house, we decided to change a small bedroom that sits right behind the master bedroom into a master bathroom and walk-in closet.  It won't be a huge bathroom...but not small either.  I can't even imagine what it will be like to have our own bathroom?!  Of course, by the time we are enjoying it...most of my children will be in college anyway.  Ah well.  Better late then never, right?  So without further ado, here is a picture of what I envision for our master bathroom...

Traditional Bathroom by Hinsdale Kitchen & Bath Remodelers Normandy Remodeling

I'd love to have white subway tile, hexagon floor tile, and pedestal sinks.  We will have a claw foot tub in the opposite corner of the shower.  The toilet will be in its own room, where the original bathroom was located.  However we will make the toilet room more narrow, giving the upstairs landing added space for a bookshelf.  I know that may be hard to picture.  Here's a picture of the top of the stairs before the fire and after the gut...

 Those door openings at the top of the stairs will not longer be there.  That wall at the top of the stairs will be moved back about foot, to make room for a bookcase and to make the room behind it into a "toilet only" room for the master bathroom.  The door opening on the right will be removed and sealed up, and our claw foot tub will reside on the other side of it.

We will use the existing closet door in the master bedroom as the new entry into the bathroom.  Just inside that doorway will be the entrance to the walk-in closet. The width of the closet will be about 6', almost the amount of space that you see to the right of that door opening in the picture below.


I wish I had a better picture to show you of where the new bathroom will go.  That will be on my list of pictures to take the next time I am over at the house.  

What about you?  Have you always had a master bathroom?  Are we the only ones that haven't?

Tweaking the kitchen plans...

I just came across this picture on www.houzz.com and now I am contemplating changing up my kitchen plans to add in the refrigerator wall that is shown on the left.  Take a look...

Contemporary Kitchen by Toronto Photographers Peter A. Sellar - Architectural Photographer

The space in my kitchen from the pantry hall to the corner of the kitchen is only 83" long.  I could just build in the refrigerator with cabinets.  I could include cabinets with doors that open upward (like shown) to house the microwave and small appliances, such as the toaster, blender, etc.  What do you think?  Don't you think that it could look like it was always there?

I also really like this kitchen:

Transitional Kitchen by Chicago Kitchen & Bath Designers

Traditional Kitchen by Chicago Kitchen & Bath Designers Rebekah Zaveloff | KitchenLab

Dreaming of a dining room...

So, I don't really have a lot of plans for the dining room other than I want a place to display my antique red transferware dishes and have lots of storage for seasonal decorations, candles, cloth napkins, tableclothes, etc.  I have a antique buffet that I used in the dining room of our other house (which is currently serving as a tv stand in our livingroom), but given the size of this dining room...larger storage is possible.  This is what I have in mind:



Why not add built in cabinetry?  These cabinets follow the same design/layout as the desk cabinets that I mentioned in my last post, with the long upper cabinets flanking each end.  I want to add a look to this house that will actually have people wondering if it were original to the house.  The above cabinets could serve as a buffet or beverage center for holdiay gatherings.  And look at all those lower cabinets for seasonal decorations!!  I truly am in love with this picture and can very much see it as a part of my house someday!

And as a reminder, here is our dining room today:

Can you picture those cabinets running along the wall to the right?

Now I need to decide paint colors.  That really is the biggest hurdle for me at the moment...picking out a whole house worth of paint colors at once.  Maybe I should go with a neutral in the whole house, and then repaint the rooms after we have lived with it for a while?  But..ugh...who wants to repaint the whole house again?!  I would love to pick out an interior "theme" of colors and choose from those in each room the FIRST time around.  Granted, there will be changes over time...but that sounds so much better than repainting every room.

What about you?  Did you pick out an interior color scheme first, or did it just evolve over time?  

Dreaming of a desk area...

Yesterday I shared what I envision for our finished kitchen, and today I am excited to share with you what I picture the finished desk area will look like. Here it is...

Contemporary Home Office by Middletown Design-Build Firms Aquidneck Properties

I love the long cabinets on each side of the desk!  Our wood floors would not be as light as in this picture.  We will be sanding and staining the original yellow pine floors.  And here is where the desk will go in our house...

This is the area at the bottom of the back staircase, between the dining room and the kitchen.  The dining room is there to the left...

And this is the view coming in from the kitchen.  This is one of the reasons we opened up the wall to this area, for access to the desk and the stairs without having to go all the way around through the kitchen.  I just made more sense and created better flow.

Dreaming of a kitchen...

I have the entire house done in my mind.  Which should be of no surprise, since I have had four years think upon it.  I wanted to share with you some of my vision...which, of course, could change as we complete the house.  But, I doubt it. I've dreamed, tweaked, and decorated the house to where I believe we WILL end up.  So here goes...

Our kitchen will have almost the exact layout as this kitchen, as far as where the range, dishwasher, sink, and island will be located. We will have white cabinets, white or marble subway tile, hardwood floors, a "looks like marble, but it's not" countertop for the perimeter, and a wood island countertop made out of the bowling alley lane we already have.  I would choose different lights for over my island as well.  Here's another kitchen with a similar layout...

I am also thinking about adding a "ceiling-to-counter" upper cabinet like the one in the picture below.  It would be half the size of the one shown, and placed in the right-hand corner of the kitchen by the door.

Transitional Kitchen by San Francisco Interior Designers & Decorators Artistic Designs for Living, Tineke Triggs

Here's what my kitchen looks like today:

Can you picture it?  I am so excited to see it finally happen...someday!

I'll share more "dreaming" soon.  Meanwhile here are a few updated, but not dramatic, pictures of the interior of the house.  

Laminate and closet removed in the pantry, desk, and back stairs area.

New opening to the back stairs and laminate flooring removed.

Laminate floors removed...much better!

Mudroom/Laundry stripped down to the studs and ready for insulation.

I know what you are thinking....we still have a long ways to go.  Tell me about it?!