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snousleWell, the finish carpentry is now almost done, but I cannot wait to share some of the pictures of how things look.
When we built this house I made some daring color choices. They made no sense whatsoever without the completed woodwork, which was needed for contrast. But now that it's all done I'm very pleased with the results. For some reason, I had the urge to paint bathrooms in warm colors, and other rooms in cool colors. The central room is fairly bland - the color is actually called "vanilla" - but the peripherial rooms are more saturated. This was a purely intuitive judgment accomplished after lots of games with paint chips.
After much experimentation with stains, we settled on a method where we first stain with a reddish stain, followed by a second coat of dark brown. We are using Minwax, which dries to leave a waxy layer that is easily shined up to a nice polish. The two-tone approach came very close to the look of hundred-year-old lumber.
I am, however, a little self-conscious about it for what might be a silly reason. I had a co-worker that I barely knew who, for no reason whatsoever, engaged me in a conversation about some horrible man that creeped her out. She mentioned specifically that he had painted all the woodwork in his house black, implying that this was some hyper-macho design move that she disapproved of. She concluded the conversation by fluttering her hands and declaring "I don't even want to know what goes on in there", as if color choices were some index to a bachelor's morality. Now, we do have a "guy house" and a number of people have commented on the masculine atmosphere. And that's very deliberate. But that woman's weird rant still sticks with me, more than a decade later. Oh well.
It's not particularly easy to photograph. When you paint a room an intense color, the eye adjusts to it when you're there in person, but the camera more or less freaks out. Anyway, I hope these give a sense of what I was trying to accomplish.
Large guest room:
Large guest room bath:
Other corner of large guest room:
Video lounge:
Half bath:
Shower and vanity in master bath:
Small guest room, which is a mess because Bill is camped out there right now:
When we built this house I made some daring color choices. They made no sense whatsoever without the completed woodwork, which was needed for contrast. But now that it's all done I'm very pleased with the results. For some reason, I had the urge to paint bathrooms in warm colors, and other rooms in cool colors. The central room is fairly bland - the color is actually called "vanilla" - but the peripherial rooms are more saturated. This was a purely intuitive judgment accomplished after lots of games with paint chips.
After much experimentation with stains, we settled on a method where we first stain with a reddish stain, followed by a second coat of dark brown. We are using Minwax, which dries to leave a waxy layer that is easily shined up to a nice polish. The two-tone approach came very close to the look of hundred-year-old lumber.
I am, however, a little self-conscious about it for what might be a silly reason. I had a co-worker that I barely knew who, for no reason whatsoever, engaged me in a conversation about some horrible man that creeped her out. She mentioned specifically that he had painted all the woodwork in his house black, implying that this was some hyper-macho design move that she disapproved of. She concluded the conversation by fluttering her hands and declaring "I don't even want to know what goes on in there", as if color choices were some index to a bachelor's morality. Now, we do have a "guy house" and a number of people have commented on the masculine atmosphere. And that's very deliberate. But that woman's weird rant still sticks with me, more than a decade later. Oh well.
It's not particularly easy to photograph. When you paint a room an intense color, the eye adjusts to it when you're there in person, but the camera more or less freaks out. Anyway, I hope these give a sense of what I was trying to accomplish.
Large guest room:
Large guest room bath:
Other corner of large guest room:
Video lounge:
Half bath:
Shower and vanity in master bath:
Small guest room, which is a mess because Bill is camped out there right now:
