ATG&D Dream Home | Paint & Wine

Some of you may remember several years ago when I confessed I was averaging 2 paint jobs (and about 1½ bottles of wine) per room as we settled into our old house. (It can be hard deciding on a paint color, am I right?!)

Well, fast forward nearly one decade and one nearly completed house later and I was back at it – only this time I only needed to select ONE  paint color. For the entire house. Ceilings, too.

(No pressure.)

Part of my problem is I see other colors in colors. I knew I wanted to go with a light ivory as the main paint color for our home, but when I open a paint swatch pamphlet featuring 50 different shades of ivory I also see the pinks and blues and yellows in most of the shades, which drives me nuts. I’m also ridiculously swayed by paint color names. (I painted our old master bedroom “Sensible Hue” because…well, how can you argue with a name like that? Clearly it was the sensible choice.)

In the end I selected Sherwin Williams Ivory Lace (SW 7013). It was a nice, clean ivory (no other shades or undertones trying to pop out), it contrasted just slightly with the white trim I’d chosen (which was the look I was going for), and it had a pretty name (I can’t help it).

Alright, back to the paint job/wine bottle equation. As I mentioned earlier, my previous average in our old house was about 2 paint jobs and 1½ bottles of wine per room. This time around there are about 14 different rooms/spaces in our house…multiply that by the one paint color I chose for everything…divided by the fact that I didn’t actually have to do any of the painting myself this time, carry the one…

So, how much wine has gone into this house so far?

Fifty-eleven hundred bottles.

(As you can see, I did the math.)

(It’s called “wine math.”)

Now, the paint:

I usually start at our front door for pics, but I decided to mix it up this time and start with my favorite photo from this day – a look at our living room, dining room, and indoor balcony (taken from our kitchen).

Ooh, Ivory Lace. She’s so pretty.

Alright, back to the entryway. Here’s the view from our front door. (Apologies for the odd angle. I had to do a Matrix-like maneuver so you could see the 2nd story overlook above.)

A look at our double-height entryway from the inside:

This next photo (below) was taken while standing in the entryway, looking into the house. From this spot, the kitchen is to the immediate left (not pictured) the living room is in the back left corner (see the fireplace?), the dining room is straight ahead in the back right corner (you can see the unfinished french doors off the dining room), and G’s office is to the immediate right (not pictured). You can also just make out the little alcove in the hallway to the right, which is the entryway to our master bedroom.

Looking to the left (toward the kitchen):

Looking to the right (G’s office):

I’m going to switch it up for a minute and show you around the entryway and front spaces of the house as viewed from the back of the house. This picture (below) was taken from in between our living room and kitchen, looking back toward the entryway area. See that window beyond the steps? That’s G’s office. The little door cutout to the right of that is our entryway coat closet. Perpendicular to the right of that (not pictured) is our front door. The next space to the right (directly in front of the steps coming up from the basement) is the hallway leading to our powder room and mudroom.

Another view:

G’s office:

And a look down that hallway. The large cutout to the left is our pantry, the powder room is straight ahead, and the doorway to the mudroom is on the right (directly across from the pantry).

A look into the mudroom/laundry room from the hallway area:

You can see the hook-ups for the washer and dryer toward the left (below). There will also be a sink in front of the window.

The other side of the mudroom. That door goes out to the garage and to the left of it is the drop zone, and shoes and hooks area.

This picture (below) was taken from inside the mudroom, looking out toward the hallway to enter the rest of the house. You can see the cutout for the pantry straight ahead.

Moving back into the main living areas of the house, here’s a look at the kitchen, as seen from the living room. You can see that little hallway I just showed you, and how the pantry is kind of around the corner from the kitchen. Along this back wall of the kitchen will be the refrigerator (located to the far left) and the oven/range (center). The kitchen sink and dishwasher will be located on the right wall, under the window.

And here’s a view of the kitchen from the other angle:

Turning around, here’s a view from the kitchen sink area, looking toward the stairs and the dining room:

Looking into the living room and dining room areas:

The dining room and indoor balcony (and my upstairs office) above:

Here’s a straight-on look at the dining room from the living room (below). The wall to the right is where we will have a built-in buffet/wet bar, and to the left are french doors which open up to a screened-in back porch.

The wall where the wet bar will be. (You can also see the entrance to our master bedroom in the hallway at the far left.)

Dining room and indoor balcony above:

A look at the dining room from the other side of the room:

Standing in the dining room, looking toward the living room and kitchen (and our hardwood floors, acclimating!):

Living room windows:

Living room fireplace wall:

View of the living room from the kitchen:

The last space to show on our main floor is our master bedroom and bathroom. I didn’t get a very good shot of our master bedroom on this day, but here’s a peek in from our entry doors looking to the left:

In the back right corner of our room is a little alcove leading to G’s closet (straight ahead), my closet (to the right) and our master bathroom (to the left):

Our master bathroom double vanity area:

To the right of the double vanities is a private toilet room, and to the left of the sinks is our walk-in shower (seen below):

That’s it for our main level! I’ll be back next time with a look at all the finished drywall and paint in our upstairs.

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