36 Doors

Just counted up how many sides of doors I painted black during phase one of crazy project. Some doors got painted on both sides, others only one side because I'm sorry, I don't care what the furnace guy thinks of the inside of a closet that we open twice a year. I had to draw a line. 195 hours, 2 cans of white primer, 1 can of gray primer, 2 cans of black paint and 2 cans of white paint (one Snowbound and one White Dove, and I wish I had only used White Dove but that decision came 125 hours into the project). I've learned that painting oak isn't as hard as I feared but it is as time consuming as I expected. I am taking a week or so off to get the fumes out of our lungs and to catch up on everything I neglected these past 7(?) weeks. A blur. But your patience has paid off and now I have some terrible iPhone photos for you. I think I was using the fog filter.

 Do I need to find before photos?  Oak, lots of oak. I do have photos from Christmas.

There you go, also foggy. When it's really all done I will get out the real camera.

 Here you can see it with the black doors balancing out the black bookcases now. Maybe it's the fumes making it foggy? Anyway, don't look up, I haven't done that part.

 Okay, I said don't look up. We call this the "sunrise effect", sunnier up top where the roller couldn't reach without the use of a ladder AND a table. I am hiring someone to finish this and to paint the oak windows above the bookcases. I guess I could stand up there but no, I'm kind of done. I'm also wanting to replace the fan and the track lighting, but this is strict budget time.

 The back staircase. Not that you can tell but I haven't done the spindles yet. After many shades of gray, I ended up with Elmira White which is a match from Benjamin Moore. It sometimes looks more tan than this. I plan to have the floors stained darker when we redo those which is when we redo the kitchen.

 Upstairs, with the old wall stuff just put back up because I'm still working on rearranging art and I just had to put something up. Do we need before shots? Okay.

 So much oak. Honey oak. I do keep getting the blessing of native Kansans when they hear of my project if I explain that it's "honey oak". Dark oak is sacred though. No painting.

I also need to change out the blue at the end. That was originally done to cover up the orange accent wall. I can't make this stuff up. I also don't have this particular shade of gray in the storage room so I can't just paint it to match the rest.

 Anyway, more of the 36 doors.

 Emily's bathroom vanity with the final coat of Dove White on it. There is no way you could ever tell from these photos (or if you are Sean) but trust me, Snowbound was too white. Dove White is the way to go. I also did Patrick's bathroom the same way and now I think they both look good enough that I can just replace faucets and towel hooks and call it done. Kid bathrooms, good enough for toothpaste splatters now.

Here is the before of the stairwell. I think I need to paint those bottom steps white because they won't match the floor when we redo them.

I cleaned the lens on my phone, not as foggy now. Too lazy to go retake all the other photos. Maybe someday when I've moved all the furniture and art around... I really can't believe how different the whole house feels with less oak. I wonder how it would feel with less gray carpeting?

 More doors! Leading to the oak palace kitchen! Emily keeps asking when I'm going to paint the kitchen. I could. I really could. But if we keep chugging along here with our strict budget we will eventually get the dream white kitchen. It's such a dark room, it really needs white but these cabinets just turn out better in black and if I painted in there it would be black or else a dark gray.

Before I get to the kitchen though, I have the library. You've seen the posts about all the books, now it's time for the black paint. But look at the wooden blind and the wood above it and the oak trim and oak crown molding... this is no small task, this is phase 2, perhaps the entire phase 2 after which I will need a good long break before phase 3. I do need to finish up Emily's and Patrick's rooms though because I started them when I did their bathrooms. Hopefully won't be too difficult, just 8 little closet doors and some trim and a desk and a bookshelf...

Anyway, I plan to move our dining room table in here and make it a desk and get rid of everything else except one reading chair. We need more seating in the basement and the kid hangout, so couches and chairs will be moved by not me. I want to shift the round table and chairs into the dining room, the dining room chairs to the kitchen island (bigger island when we remodel), and then get a big long table that seats 6-10 in the hearth room and make that our eating area (except during the winter because my word, someone forgot to insulate that back wall). When I opened those cabinets next to the fireplace to paint them the temperature went to 55 degrees when the rest of the house was 68. Yes, I went and got my grilling thermometer, I'm just that resourceful. So a few months of the year we just won't eat in there, it will be the summer dining room. In the summer when the front dining room is baking in the sun, we'll shift to the hearth room. I realize there is a fireplace in the hearth room but it's wood burning and I don't even know if the flue is open or if that is how you spell flue.

One last photo, from Nell Hill where I was getting some decor and some inspiration:

Can you see the library like this? I'm loving the black but I think the messy shelves would give me hives. I can't live with such chaos. Of course I might be just crazy enough to throw everything back on the shelves this way when I'm done painting. Done, just get on the shelf! Too many fumes to care!