Our Philly home was the first house we bought. We looked FOREVER for a place to settle into after we were married. We fell in love with the Art Museum area after living there as newlyweds, but sadly, we could not afford it. Luke found this sweet gem in Northern Liberties. We jumped on it and began making it our own shortly after move-in. One of the first things we did was paint the walls of the first floor. I wanted a “Tuscan” kitchen, as I was newly a Napoli, so: clear connection there. Also, the tile floors and tile counter made perfect sense for it to be a little rustic. In that mindset, we fell into this orange-red for the walls:
Luke has always loved bright colors in the house, and this worked perfectly with the cabinets, floor, counters, appliances.
Seven years later, we had to replace the disgusting countertops and the broken floors. We installed a granite counter top in Colonial White and found the walls just didn’t work anymore.
Always a fun discovery when you’re already feeling pressed for time. Especially because it’s a bold wall color that would need some primer before we could even get samples on there to see what would go. (I’m a firm believer in at least 85 samples before committing. I have issues.)
Day 1: PRIME
I drove down to the city after the boys went to bed to begin priming the walls. I’d bought the primer earlier in the day, paying up for one that said it covers dark colors. At this point, time was more valuable than money. It took a few hours. I knew I still had a 45-minute drive ahead of me so I called it at 11pm, leaving the kitchen mostly primed:
True to it’s advertising, the primer really did cover up well.
Day 2: PRIME, SAMPLE, PAINT
This was one of those miraculous days that my parents had offered to come help us work on the house. My mom planned to take the kids, my dad planned to work on the trim for the floor, Luke planned to go buckwild at a bachelor party, and I planned to paint the walls. Teamwork at it’s finest. I thought the white we used in our regular kitchen might work, so I grabbed that sample from the basement (BM Dove White) and also had picked up SW Agreeable Gray. These were both color-matched at Lowe’s.
Left: Agreeable Gray Right: Dove White
Neither worked. The Agreeable Gray looked too brown on this wall. The Dove White was too bright on the other wall.
Under the shelf: Left – Agreeable Gray; Right – Dove White
I decided not to decide until I had it up against the wood cabinets and the yellow living rooms walls. I had to prime that area first, let it dry for 4 hours, and then I’d try again. Unfortunately, when you have three kids, it’s like a ticking time bomb. At any moment, my mom could call and say, “Welp, they’re a mess. We’re coming home.” (Mind you, my mom is a PRO at kids. She had four. We all turned out to be wonderful human beings. And I still am constantly worried that they’re falling apart somewhere.)
Here is where the greatest shout-out to a local business comes into play. The nearest Home Depot is a 20 minute drive from the house. To get there, get samples, and come back would eat up almost an hour. As I said, we were SO short on time for this renovation that this seemed like an awful use of such a commodity. I decided to walk to Benjamin Moore, 2 blocks away. THEY WERE THE BEST. I brought a photo of the kitchen, told them the two colors I’d tried and didn’t like, said I wanted a bluer tone, and they found some swatches for me. I said, “Great! How much is a sample.” The answer, “$8.99 each.” I stared at the salesman. Then said, “Wow, that’s a lot.” Silence. Mostly because I didn’t know what I was going to do. I had three samples I wanted, but I didn’t want to spend $30 on SAMPLES. Out of the kindness of his amazing Benjamin Moore heart, he grabbed some paper samples from the back. He only had two of the three I chose, but it was so generous. I didn’t even have to pay for them. I grabbed them, ran home (threw a little exercise in there. Always multi-tasking), and propped them up on all the walls.
They were terrible. My thought that blue undertones were a good idea was not. This is why I’m not a designer. This is was I need 85 samples before ever making a decision. My dad agreed that this wasn’t working, so naturally I ran back to the store. I took a different route so everyone having coffee at One Shot wouldn’t wonder what a crazy I was. After getting into Benjamin Moore, the salesman said, “So which one do you want???” I yelled out, “Neither!! They’re both too blue. I was wrong. I don’t like them. What do I do????” He didn’t miss a beat. He said, “I know what you want. Stonington.” I said, “Sure,” he yells out to the other guy “HC-170!” They pulled that paper sample from the back. I thanked them a million times. They also provided me with Light Pewter. Just amazing people. I hoofed it back to the house, popped those puppies up on the wall. And they were right. They are geniuses.
I took the two paper samples back, announced with joy that we wanted “Light Pewter.”
After bringing the gallon of Light Pewter home, I managed to get two coats on before the end of the day. The pictures are a little dark because it was a long day:
Here it is in daylight, with everything else complete (counter, plumbing, floor.). I’ll be honest. It’s a littler grayer than I truly want, a little too boring and trendy, but I’m not re-painting it. It makes the room look crisp and clean. I think when we get a new backsplash in and maybe some dark hardware, it’ll look even sharper. That’s for another month though :).
I am really looking forward to taking out the backsplash. And to be honest, I do still have a teeny little regret that I repainted the Tuscan Red. It was fun. Vibrant. Said, “We don’t care that there are 85 million other rentals in this neighborhood, ours is awesome.” But let’s be real, the real travesty here is the backsplash. That pup needs to go. Maybe a matte black faucet as well…. And of course that hardware.
Price o Project:
Paint 70.72
Team Dream Work 