Paint Ideas (Artists Welcome and Appreciated!!!!) by 6ixStringJack

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Paint Ideas (Artists Welcome and Appreciated!!!!)

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POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Friday, February 24, 2012 19:59
SHORT URL: http://bit.ly/wZL87b
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Friday, February 17, 2012 5:54 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Hey everybody,

I think Wishimay is suffering burnout and cabin fever just from reading my posts in the "Anybody" thread that has gone on for at least 4 months. I think it's time to give her a break

The 2nd floor of my house has been completely rehabbed (except for the bathroom which is perfectly serviceable and I'll get to at a later date).

All walls and ceilings have been completely repaired, electric was fixed and some other electrical upgrades were made, all garbage moulding, casings and window panes/trim were removed for a fresh start, and 3 coats of primer on every wall make for a nice shiny white canvass to start from.

Here's a glimpse of the corner of my "Master Bedroom" as it is now....

As you can see, there is zero molding in the room. I also removed it all from the doorway and the closet, and I ripped out all of the metal/plastic closet crap to make way for some real quality work down the road.

The hardwood floors on the 2nd floor will be a VERY dark stain, think of the color of chocolate or coffee grounds.

Using an awesome tool at BenjaminMoore.com, I was able to get a glimpse of what I could make it look like before painting.

I realize that this wolud probably be a darker color than many would suggest (it's called Fox Run), but keep in mind that my house is built on a 45 degree angle on the corner and this room has a SW exposure, so it would get premium sunlight even in the winter. It's also 15ftx15ft, so it's a very large room. It's my thinking that with the oversized pure white trim I'm going to be putting everywhere that it will be plenty bright, even with the dark floors.

I was just wondering what you thought of this idea....

Here's the pic I came up with from BM.com's site:

Originally I was thinking of being adventurous and going with a red, but the swatches kept bringing me back to a brown with slight red tones to it.

Currently, my King Size bed has a deep red bedding to it. I hear that a brown like this would go well with a Burgandy type bed-set and accents, and would benefit from light beige area rugs and window treatments.

What do you think?????

Thanks!!!!!!

~6

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Friday, February 17, 2012 6:27 PM

BYTEMITE

Looks good. The dark colored wood is an interesting touch, would probably look good with the red bedspread.

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Friday, February 17, 2012 6:42 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

Do you know how to use a color wheel or a Pantone® book?

http://www.pantone.com/popups/medialounge/medialounge.aspx?pid=1002&ty
pe=1

The simple version goes like this: Find the closest match to the color you're doing the floor in. Note its position on the page of the Pantone book (second from top, third from last, etc.). Now flip to the beige section for your wall color, and pick from the same position on the page - second from top, third from last, etc. Do the same for your red, for your accents, trim, and so on, and you end up with a room that has a "tonal balance". All the colors mesh, and none of them clash.

Also, greens are still quite popular with dark browns and reds. Think something like a pastel green - not a surf green, necessarily, but something like this:

Look at column 34, row 08. Something along those lines.

With the beige/tan colors, they are VERY hard to mix. I spent 20-some years in print shops, and mixing beige and tan inks was tough. You can change the character of the color by quite literally adding one or two drops of red or green into a gallon of beige!

Everybody has their own style and tastes, so you have to do what you can live with. I prefer muted colors on most walls (white, cream, something neutral), but then I like to have one really bold wall, which I call an "accent wall", painted with a very bold color. The main wall of my living room - the wall that houses the entertainment center and shelves for my Czech art glass - is a bold, bright orange. A whole room of it would kill my eyes, but a single wall of it breaks up the room.

At any rate, it looks like you're definitely on the right track. That room is going to look a thousand percent better than when you started, I'll bet!

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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Friday, February 17, 2012 7:07 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
Looks good. The dark colored wood is an interesting touch, would probably look good with the red bedspread.

Thanks Byte,

I didn't even think of it until i saw it on BM.com and loved it.

I don't want dark hardwood on the 1st floor though, so my idea was to make all the steps the dark color of the 2nd floor and the vertical slats the light color of the 1st floor.

I think it will look awesome!

I'll also have a dark beige in the livingroom of the first floor with the light floors, to contrast a light beige in the 2nd floor hallway stairwell to contrast the dark hardwood.

Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:
Do you know how to use a color wheel or a Pantone® book?...........

At any rate, it looks like you're definitely on the right track. That room is going to look a thousand percent better than when you started, I'll bet!

"

Thanks for the info Kwicko, but I'm about as dumb with colors as I am at college algebra. I loved art classes in highschool, but I always tinkered in charcoal and B/W stuff. I'm not color-blind medically, but sometimes I think I may as well be.

Do you think a room with walls moderately dark like that, with a floor that is EXTREMELY dark will work with a pure S/W exposure to natural sunlight?

Here's a little more info about how the room looked at first and during work....

Horrible windows with no trim execpt the "sills" that were covered with 20 layers of paint, likely many of them laden with lead.

Martha Stewart went crazy on the blue walls with a sliver sponge.

Two 15 foot ceiling cracks require a lot of prep.... cutting out a "V" to mud, screwing into the joists to further brace, mudding over mesh tape, sanding nearly 60 sq feet of mud overhead to make it as even as possible so the naked eye can't tell any work was done......

Here's the end result of that work:

Anyways, thanks for the input, truly...

Here's what my 2nd Bedroom looked like before:

Here's what it looks like now:

Here's what I'm thinking about doing with it:

I love that you want to teach a man to fish, rather than fish for him, but I'm on a serious personal time frame here. I'd love to hear from somebody like you that knows that my personal choises in color don't make me look like an idiot. I put way too much time in prep work to look like a douchebag after the colors go up finally.

Thanks again,
~6

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Friday, February 17, 2012 7:20 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

All of this "Color" talk makes me think of one of my top ten songs ever...

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Friday, February 17, 2012 7:32 PM

WISHIMAY

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

... and 3 coats of primer

Ha! You said "primer"! I getta

Moonshine!

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Friday, February 17, 2012 8:26 PM

KWICKO

It looks like it gets good light, so the dark floor and not-white walls should work pretty well. Maybe even a light blond/cream color around windows/doors/moldings to set them off a bit. I do like the idea of browns/tans/coffee colors set off with a dramatic red bedspread - it focuses the room on the bed, which ain't a bad thing in a bedroom!

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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Saturday, February 18, 2012 1:09 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
Ha! You said "primer"! I getta

Moonshine!

Haha! Got me again.

You'll have to come up with another word I overuse soon though. Probably won't have much left to pri... um... yanno... for a while.

Still have to do the door frames and the molding on the stairs after they're all prepped in the next few days though, so it should be good for a few more shots!

"Paint" might be good for a short while, although now that everything will be prepped that part should go really quickly once I figure out my colors.

"Sand" or "Stain" could be good for a while too, although I hope that I can get the floors done in about 3-4 days tops since that will really suck not being able to walk on the 2nd floor for 24hr stretches.

Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:
It looks like it gets good light, so the dark floor and not-white walls should work pretty well. Maybe even a light blond/cream color around windows/doors/moldings to set them off a bit. I do like the idea of browns/tans/coffee colors set off with a dramatic red bedspread - it focuses the room on the bed, which ain't a bad thing in a bedroom!

Yeah, it gets a ton of light when I don't have garbage bags covering the windows.

When you say "around" the windows/doors/moldings, do you mean to go with a cream color on the actual moldings? Or maybe you mean only on the parts that touch the walls (the outside borders of the wood)? I don't exactly get your meaning here.

For the bed, I'm thinking of getting rid of the headboard and just keeping the frame for now, and sometime later upgrading to a better King frame. The one I have looks nice, but it's very light colored and it's just veneered low/quality particle board. I don't actually even feel it's worth risking bumping into walls to take it upstairs when I want to replace it down the line anyhow.

That being said, I have a dark colored, quality, bedroom set (2 Dressers, one with a gigantic mirror top that almost resembles a bar, and a night stand). It will be just a few shades of brown lighter than the floor will be. Do you think that a set that will be much darker than the walls, yet only a few shades lighter than the floor will go well?

There are shelves meant for decorative things along both sides of the "Mirror top" which is heavy and simply rests on top of the dresser that is about 70" wide and only about 32" tall (with the mirror on top, it's nearly 7' tall). I figure on those shelves I could have some extra "Red" to go with the bed set.

If you think the set could work, I'd probably get a King frame in a similar dark color when money permits.

Oh yeah.... Underneath, I'd like to get about a 12'x12' light beige area rug that will leave nearly 1'6" of the dark hardwood exposed at all edges, so in the end the dark floors really aren't going to be dark except for at the borders.

Thanks again for the thoughts.

Anybody else have any thoughts or ideas, please chime in!

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Sunday, February 19, 2012 12:08 PM

FLORALBUNNY

Kwicko - - loved the video at the Pantone site. That software would make a lovely tool/toy.
Thanks for putting up the link.

bun

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Monday, February 20, 2012 6:42 AM

ARTCAT81

I say go for it. I like the mockup. Worst case scenario is you hate it, it's paint you can always paint over it later.

---------
Browncoats are the shiniest folks in the 'verse
www.texasartcat.com/bluesun.html <--my bluesunshop

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Friday, February 24, 2012 6:32 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Benjamin Moore "Aura" paint.............

It is SO good that I'm at a loss for words. I think it's so good that to even call it "paint" is a huge insult. It's not paint. It's "Aura". The only reason they call it paint is because people wouldn't know what Aura was otherwise.

Here's all the pros I loved about working with it and seeing the final product.

1. Value - Sure, it's $55 a gallon with a contractor discount, and a whopping $65 a gallon without it, but the spread is UNBELIEVABLE. Even if it covered completely in one coat, I planned on doing two coats, so for my 15'x15' bedroom I bought two gallons today. I'm glad I love the color now that it's up, because I barely put a dent in the second gallon after the 2nd coat was done! (Make sure you buy the "Aura" roller if you use this paint. Lamb's wool is fine for any of their other lines, but after using the specific roller I'm a true believer that it gives the perfect spread and that my trusty lamb's wool would have left way too much of this paint on the walls).

The directions say that you only get about 400-450 sq feet/gal, but it was more likely 600 or more.

Sure, I "wasted" about 50 bucks worth of paint here, but I'll use that somewhere else later. The great news is that I'll only have to buy one gallon each for my hallway/stairwell and 2nd smaller bedroom. I was sure that I'd need at least 2 gallons for each area. (Here's where the value comes in. If I bought cheap crap at Home Depot, I'd have to buy two $30-35 gallons for two coats)

2. Coverage - For DARK colors, there is no substitute. My stark white primered walls were no match for this paint. (Supposedly it's self priming too, but I can't speak about how well that works, since I had loads of primer up already)

If I were an expert painter, it wouldn't have needed more than one single coat. My cutting-in skills are a bit novice though, so the area between the ceiling and where I could get the roller to reach without hitting the ceiling were the ONLY spots that didn't look completely covered after a single coat.

3. Washable Walls With a Low Sheen - A low sheen is important on walls because the lesser the sheen, the more light is absorbed and the less chance that any imperfections in your walls will be noticable. If you're buying average paint from a warehouse, you'll want to go with at least an eggshell sheen if you ever hope to be able to wash grease marks off the walls from people with dirty hands pawing all over them over the years. Aura's Matte finish is 100% washable with 2 coats though. It's the lowest sheen other than Flat, which you would only put on ceilings.

4. Mold/Mildew Resistant - It comes with this resistance, but if you're going to use it in your basement, you can buy an additional packet to be mixed in the paint for even stronger resistance for about 5 bucks.

5. Drying Time - Only 45 minutes and you're ready to put on the 2nd coat. After I was done with the first coat, I went out for a smoke and by the time I was back I was ready to cut in the 2nd time and the time it took for me to roll out the paint from start to finish gave the last two walls plenty of drying time before I got to them. No other paint on the market dries as fast as Aura.

I'm a True Believer in this paint now. Any time I can use it in my house I will. Hell... I feel like I've just been pulled into a cult, it's that good.

My only negative comment about the paint is superficial, since it will go away in a few days.....

This paint STINKS!

I usually love the smell of latex paint and primer as it's being applied, but I really hate the smell of this paint, which makes it even harder to apply in February when you can't crack the windows. I won't go as far as to say that it's foul smelling, but it's definitely not the pleasant aroma that paint usually gives off, and it is quite strong in closed quarters.

So....

Results!

You remember the primered "before" picture:

Well here's the after pics:

I can't wait to see what this looks like with the restored floor and all the trim and casings up!

EDIT:

Oh, and BTW, as awesome as BM's tool I mentioned in the first post is, it doesn't accurately show the color. The color after being on the walls is obviously much darker than the website showed. Granted, I use a PC and it doesn't have Gamma correction, so maybe if you're using a Mac on their site it would be more accurate.

I'm still very pleased with the results. I wanted dramatic, and even though I was originally considering a RED color, I couldn't pull the trigger on that. I'm happy with this unexpected change in plans, after the fact. It's more bold and more red than I thought I wanted, but now that it's up I think it's perfect.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Friday, February 24, 2012 7:59 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Hey Kwicko,

You seem to be the resident color expert here.

I have a 12'x7.5' oriental rug I've inherited from my grandma that I want to incorporate in my house.

Don't worry, she's still with us. She gave her two orientals to my mom after she moved into a condo and they've been sitting in a roll in her basement for the last 10 years. Now that my bro and I have houses she gave them to us.

My bro, being the good person he is, knew my favorite color was blue, so he took the red one. I really do like the blue one better, but I'm at a loss about how to incorporate that into my plans.

I want to either put it in the 2nd bedroom (which would be a perfect fit, leaving about 1 1/2 feet of exposed dark hardwood floor around it, or in the living room in the sitting area.

Largely, it is a dark Navy-type blue. It has dragons and patterns on it as well though. They range from off-white to yellow and red. 85% of this rug is a dark blue though.

In the living room I plan on having light-to-medium-colored hardwood floor and a dark beige-brown wall scheme. I don't know how well this rug would work with that.

The small bedroom, however, is not set in stone at all. It's going to have VERY dark hardwood floors (think, Hershey bar brown), but the walls are up for grabs. It's a relatively small room (only 15'x8.5'), and it has a North-East exposure, so even during the day the sun exposure will be at a minimum, so the walls have to be a light color.

I'm considering blue for the walls, but I really HATE all the light colored blues I'm seeing. Can you think of any other alternatives given what I'm telling you?

No other factors are involved. Just the oriental rug and the dark floors. Most furniture I have is used or cheap and will be replaced someday with stuff that matches.

Thanks,
6

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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