More in-progress shots of the hallway-subacqua

When the light shines in through the glass in the front door, it feels like the hallway is underwater — it’s a beautiful glowing acqua color.

None of these photos really shows the true color, but here they are anyway. Please note the invaluable help being provided by the pets.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The ceiling is a semi-gloss color called Spring Melt (Martha Stewart), but I think it’s too light and I may have to re-do it at some point. I’m reserving judgement until I have another light in the hallway. It looks kind of dingy, but it may just be the lighting situation.

I’ve decided to go back to plan A and just wallpaper the other wall after the plumbing project is done (when I suddenly come into a big pot of money). Hello… universe? I could really use $8,000. Thanks. (Let’s see what happens.)

More teal installed

I got more of the hallway painted yesterday — I love it!!! It’s such a lovely vibrant color combo and I loooooooove the effect of the semi-gloss paint over the textured wallpaper and aged character of the bumpy walls. (Good thing I love it, because I’d be s.o.l. otherwise).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Please enjoy the floating fairy orbs.

Hope to finish up this week, but it’s raining tonight and I don’t want to paint when it’s so wet out.

Electric Avenue — Teal

So there I was, minding my own business, when I could no longer stand looking at my dirty, grimey, soot covered entryway and hallway. I’d always planned to do the hallways and stairwells after an additional bathroom is added on the top floor of the house. That plumbing project is going to be expensive, dirty, disruptive, and a major PITA. But once it’s done, there will be no more tramping up and down the stairs with heavy scrapey things (unless something breaks).

However…. especially with the dining room and living room looking so nice…. I just couldn’t take it anymore. So I started painting the hallway.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I decided not to remove the wallpaper and just paint over it instead. This is (a) because I’m lazy and (b) because this is load-bearing wallpaper and sometimes it’s just better to leave it alone.

So I decided on a sort of “electric teal” with an old-fashioned blueish color for trim. All in semi-gloss. Why? Why not! It’s only paint.

I think I’m going to love it. But I may hate it. We’ll see…. all the photos are showing wet paint, so it will look quite different when dry. I’m hoping to finish this project by the end of June.

Purple Parlor

Has every Victorian house had a purple room at some point in its history? Perhaps. Mine does now. A purple parlor. I painted the living room over the weekend. After I put in the white carpet in the dining room, I found the red living room a bit too dark and oppressive. I went with Martha Stewart’s “Violet Aster” in the new (I guess) Behr “self-priming flat enamel” — not to be confused with the Behr paint and primer in one. What’s the difference? Who knows. Nobody at Home Depot knew. But the paint was lovely and went on very nicely. I couldn’t have done it without the help and support of the pets.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I used a gallon plus a quart (I could have done it with a gallon if I did it all in one day and didn’t waste paint in the clean-up process) and put on two coats. With the paint and two roller covers (which I treat as single-use disposable items), it cost about $55 and maybe six hours of work (hard to say, because I took a lot of socialization breaks). I looooooove the color — the room seems very bright and airy. And Rod and Darlene look great in purple, too!

1975 Arts Festival

Here are some photos from the Nelson Family of the 1975 Mattoon Street Arts Festival (the third one).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.