Our Grey Choice

As promised, here are some updated photos of our pick for the grey paint color. It's Sherwin Williams Repose Gray. It's a perfect, not brown, not blue gray. I'm so pleased with it! 

The kitchen island is Dovetail by SW. it's 3 shades darker than Repose gray on the same paint strip. I love the way the island turned out so much, that we also had the upstairs bathroom vanity painted the same color!

It's a work in progress, but truly a labor of love! 

Xoxo,

Shannon

Handsome House

The exterior color is Sherwin Williams Retreat. The door will be painted Sherwin Williams Riverway but it has gotten so cold and snowy here that it just hasn't gotten done yet. 

I can't wait to sit on that front porch! 

That's the only photo I have of the back patio and it's one of my favorite parts of the house! I'll try and get another photo soon! 

I'm dreaming of a white kitchen

The white kitchen is all over the internet with its beautiful, clean, and inviting feeling. I wanted to re-create a lot of what I've seen online and I'm feeling like a proud momma so far. 

It's funny when you are building, because you pick things out months before you actually get to see them installed. It's almost like a new surprise everyday to walk through the house and see what has been done, what choices you made, and (hopefully) fall in love all over again. 

Here's a quick look at my dream kitchen becoming my reality! 

Pardon the dust everywhere! It's still under construction! 

Until next time! 

Xoxo

500,000 shades of gray paint

As promised, this post is dedicated to GRAY PAINT. I had no idea when we set out to find that perfect  shade, just how many options there actually are. Sure, I figured each  brand would have several options but would they really be so different? YES they are so different. Some are warm with brown or red undertones, others are cool with blue and green undertones. Others are more neutral with the perfect balance of cool and warm. 

I was on a mission to find that one color that was soft, cool, and just blended into the background. I wanted a whisper of color that didn't feel brown, blue, or anything other than gray. I wanted it to make our home feel effortlessly chic, inviting, and modern all at the same time. Its like when you spend time on your hair and makeup to get that 'I just rolled out of bed aren't I gorgeous' look similar to a lingerie model. 

I spent hours and hours online researching what other people had to say about different shades of Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore, Valspar, Restoration Hardware, etc etc. I began to see that everyone had something different to say about all of the options. 

We went to Lowes on New Year's Day and had some samples mixed. Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore were closed that day, but the lady at the paint counter said she had the paint formulations and could make samples. We asked her to mix Ben Moore Abalone, SW Agreeable Grey, SW Passive, and a Valspar color named Warm Chinchilla (husband found that one). With samples and paint brushes, we headed to the house to paint some walls. 

P: Passive, A: Abalone C: Warm Chinchilla and the unmarked one is Agreeable Grey

We painted in different rooms to catch the different sunlight. There isn't any electricity yet, so this all had to be done in daylight. Passive and Chinchilla were too blue and Agreeable Grey didn't feel grey to us. Abalone looked pretty good on the walls. I google image searched Abalone and found this beautiful home painted with the shade I had been searching for. 

Source

See how soft this color is on the walls? It seriously makes my heart happy in this photo. So I sent my choice over to the interior designer that has helped us pick some of the finishes and she text me back the next day and said "we need to talk about your paint color". Yikes. She text me a photo of Abalone next to our master bathroom finishes and said it was really a brown color. 

Abalone next to our master shower choices (more on those later)

Ugh, she was right. The paint strip looked so red to me compared to our beautiful tile choices. My heart sank. The paint color was 'due' in just a few days and I didn't know when I'd have more time to go get more samples and paint again. About an hour went by and I received another text from her. She found a shade she thought went perfectly and encouraged us to go to the Sherwin Williams store to get a sample rather than the big box stores just in case the formula was wrong. 

Sherwin Williams Repose Gray 

It looked beautiful in the text photo, but I had to see it up on a wall to be certain. So, of course, I googled and googled and I really couldn't find anyone saying it was less than a true gray. The kind of gray I'd been searching for. The next day, we went to the SW store and had a sample mixed. The dot on top of the can looked the same as all of the other samples I had. WARNING: don't judge a gray paint by the dot on the lid! This color is beautiful. It's everything I've wanted in a shade of gray. I will post when it's been painted because the small swatch on the wall just doesn't do it justice. So, for now, here are some photos of other walls painted Repose Gray. 

Both from Pinterst search

xo

Shannon

Our First Dream Home

The home we are building is a modern craftsman style home. We fell in love with the neighborhood the first time we drove through it. Each house has it's own whimsical style to it with unique details and colors. 

The craftsman home is so special because there is so much attention to detail right down to the baseboards. Built-ins, crown molding, coffered ceilings, wainscoting, porch railing patterns, exterior shake, geometrical details in lighting, oh my I could go on forever.

Pinterest has helped me bring visions to life, and to help me dream of things I didn't even know I wanted or needed. You can follow some of my boards here and here. How did we survive before pinterest?

This home sort of stole my heart and I keep going back to it for inspiration

 and here's our house under construction. They are sort of similar! 

So the biggest hurdle in building this home has been picking the perfect gray paint for the interior. I've read so many blogs about that perfect shade of gray and I really thought, "how hard could it possibly be?"

HA!! It has been the most challenging project yet. 

My next post will be all about gray paint.

xo 

Shannon

Maiden Voyage

My very first blog post! I have been inspired by so many great blogs out there and I finally decided 2014 is going to be the year of trying new things!

I am a twenty-something, a wife, and a mother of one. I am a licensed aesthetician and I work in a dermatology clinic. We started building our first dream home in 2013 and it should be completed in March 2014.

Building this home has been the main inspiration of starting this blog. I have spent countless hours online reading blogs about paint colors, flooring, lighting, builder upgrades etc. I want to share our experience with all of this because those posts have truly helped me during this journey.

I am keeping this post short and sweet tonight as we head out for dinner with friends.

xo
Shannon