Cricket Acres Studio: Paint It White-A Living/Dining Room Makeover

I told my husband is was time to paint our living room/dining room over, and he agreed. A great 'winter' project while we are stuck inside with the snow and frigid temperatures. 'What color?', he asked me. 'White', I answered. He looked at me like I was crazy.

When we bought the house 18 years ago, it was built in 1953, the walls were a light bright green-you know, that 50's color green. Well I like that on vintage furniture but not on the walls, so we painted it 'navajo white' which turned out to be anything but white-it had such a yellow undertone to it, that it was more yellow than cream. But I lived with it.

Then we added a second floor to our home when we were expecting our 2nd child and tried to match the color where the new stair met the old house-yeah, not so much! There was a distinct line. But we lived with it. Then I wanted to 'cozy up' the dining room end to make it look like it's own room. I wanted red, but ended up with a brick color. Not what I intended. But I lived with it. Do you see where this is going?

I've realized that I am not the best at picking out wall colors...18 years later. And I'm always changing out my accessories with the seasons, which NEVER coordinated with the wall colors and it drove me CRAZY. So now that I had my husband on board to paint again, and looking at all the pictures that I've posted on Pinterest, I've realized that white is my best friend. But now what white? There are sooo many to choose from. The professional opinions are overwhelming! 'Depending on the amount of natural light, window orientation, furniture, mood desired, etc.' I decided to go with a color that I use on a lot of my painted furniture-Dove White by Benjamin Moore. It has a slight gray undertone to it. The other deciding factor with painting the walls white, was that our home still has it's original unpainted woodwork, and I still can't bring myself to paint it, even though I love white painted trim (as I've seen from all my Pinterest posts). So with the wood work staying, well, wood, I decided to 'get my white' by painting the walls.

As soon as the red was primed, the entire room opened up and I started to see the light/airy/fresh feeling that I was looking for. I knew it was the right decision. Of course, nothing goes smoothly (or fast) when it comes to our projects. We had to repair cracks in the ceiling, then paint the ceiling-that took a couple of weeks working weekends only. Lots of dust...

Then we discovered rot on the side of the chimney where we had a water leak due to a roofing issue. We had the roof repaired last fall, but now we have to wait for the warmer weather to pull the siding off the house and repair the rotten boards, so we're living with a hole in the living room until then. (See it on the left side of the chimney-yup, floor to ceiling)

Then the painting finally started.

I also wanted to bring our room out of the 80's and more our style which is a laid- back/comfy/easy/light/uncluttered/Sonoma Valley meets East Coast look. So down came the ceiling fan, and and a new light fixture in the dining room was installed.

The last big decision, to paint the brick or not? I had a friend suggest covering the brick with white paper and see if we all liked it. What a great idea!