It's Not Easy Being Green

Back at the end of July, I wrote of my desire to redecorate the downstairs guest room.  I posted this photo of the color green I wanted to use.

 

I further went on to whine and moan about finding the perfect shade of green.

I eventually settled on Parakeet 4th tint.

This dark dark olive green color is what I am replacing.

In the bathroom I am painting Parakeet over dark red walls.  I am also painting the laundry room Parakeet.  It is presently the same olive green as the bedroom.

Jeff, the painter arrived Friday to paint every room with a primer I had tinted Parakeet. 

As I am typing, Jeff is finishing the second coat over the primer on everything.  Each gallon of paint costs $60! Our old painter included the paint in his price.  I had no idea that it was that expensive per gallon.  I am absolutely loving the color.  Here's a sneak peek after 2 coats of egg shell paint.  It's still a bit wet in this photo.

I hope to have everything completed by Tuesday.

Don't Ever Dare Me...

If you're one of my grandsons...don't ever bet me that I won't do something you're afraid to do.  (This was a first for me).  The snake weighed 80lbs.  The feel of his skin against mine was incredible, warm and soft and supple.  He was incredibly heavy, but for some reason I felt no fear.  And by the way...Granddad is a sissypants, too.

Nobody Likes Me

The little potbellied man at Benjamin Moore hates me now. My husband hates me, too. The crabby bunch at Ace Hardware is beginning to look askance if I ask a question. They're all a bunch of sissies who believe all greens are created equal. I am here to shout at them, "It just ain't so you poor excuses for paint people!"

Since I dove into this paint the office/bedroom a weird shade of green project I have spent hours researching green. Yes, that's who I am and what I have been trained to do...research. Unlike my husband who will remove some Doodad from the box and begin messing with it before he even knows what it is, I will find the manual, study it page by page for a week and then consider removing the object from the box after I've gathered and carefully laid out all necessary tools. " Why?" you may ask. Well, because I've never ever had a wife of my own to run and fetch a hammer and four seconds later the needle nose pliers and then a beer because "this is hard work!" Life is unfair that way.

Here's some of my research...just two of a cast of dozens.

www.bellemaison23.com/2011/07/cant-get-enough-of-kelly-green.html

blog.lesliesaul.com/leslie-talks-about/color/green-is-a-color/

I think I'm on the homestretch to green color perfection now. I've had Parakeet, my original Sherwin Williams color sample, adjusted four times now by the Benjamin Moore man whom I am sure wishes I had just gone to Sherwin Williams in the first place. I've purchased samples of Granny Smith from Benjamin Moore and Sweet Pea from Ace Hardware.

Here is the color chart as it stands at this moment. Remember, all monitors "see" color differently and so do all people, especially greens and blues. It's hard to see much variation between the original Parakeet and the 4th tint, but just ask my husband and the potbellied Benjamin Moore man and the Crabby Apples at Ace Hardware, to me there is a difference. Also remember this...in my world things are subject to change at any given moment. That room will be the perfect shade of green or else...that's just who I am.

Down By the Meadow...

As previously mentioned, our niece, her husband and their two children, ages two and five, came from the UK to spend three weeks with us.  Both children arrived non-swimmers.  They didn't leave that way. Everyday I sang "Down by the meadow in an itty bitty pool" to them.  Neither the children nor their parents had ever heard the song.  It must be an American thing.  

 Below is two year old Finlay.

And here is the queen of all quick learners, Imogen.

Living Dangerously

Obviously I have returned. Three and a half weeks of having four house guests, including a five year old and a two year old, have just concluded. Can we all say, in unison, "Whew, Dana is really getting old." We loved having them all here and photos and commentary are forthcoming. I also have a new laptop that has some hiccups..

The living dangerously thing all started with this..a photo I saw on the internet.

I was wandering around the HGTV website quite innocently when whammo! I was dazzled and delighted. A dilemma was solved. Happiness reigned in the land of Chez Dana and John. It was all good. To fill in the back story...

We have been in this house for a year now. It's a large house. Upstairs there are three large bedrooms, a bonus room/loft and two full bathrooms, one with double vanities, one with single vanity, both with tub and shower. Downstairs we have our master bedroom and bathroom, living room, dining room, great room, kitchen, breakfast room, laundry room, an office/bedroom and another full bath with tub and shower, single vanity etc.. The office/bedroom has a walk-in closet and double glass doors as shown above. The previous owner used it strictly as an office. I have made it into a combined office bedroom so that guests who have difficulty with stairs ie my brother-in-law with Parkinson's or my eighty-five year old Dad have an easily accessible bedroom to use while here with us.

I love most of the colors that were in the house when we bought it, warm earth tones. Our bedroom, the office and the laundry room were the exception, all painted the same color, a dark, dark, drab, drab olive green. The office bathroom is a deep red with a lot of orange to it. We had our bedroom and bathroom repainted the same color that we had in the old house, Benjamin Moore Misted Green as seen below in the previous house. I love the color. It's a spa color and is either blue or green depending on the time of day and the light.

Here are some ugly photos of the office/bedroom as it presently stands...

The color is so dark and drab that's it's difficult to even take a photo with the blinds open and the lights on. As you can see, the bed is iron and the furniture black. The bathroom is this color...

After much hemming and hawing, I found a Sherwin Williams color named Parakeet. I loved the color and adored the name. That being said, I am a loyal Benjamin Moore girl so dragged my SW sample down to Benjamin Moore for a custom tint primer and eggshell paint in a quart size as a sample. The color is not as chartreusey (I just made up that word.  It's a blogger's form of literary license) as that original HGTV photo. I had husband paint a square of it on the wall and I love it. Here is a sample photo of parakeet...

The bedding will be white matelasse with a black and white throw at the foot of the bed. I'll search for a black and white toile shower curtain. I'll use simple voile sheers over the white window blinds and that's it.

I think the flash makes the color look washed out in this photo.