Let's talk wall painting...

I have a ton of rooms that I want to get painted in our home this year and I want to get a good start on it all this summer. I want to do our living room but that's probably going to wait until we get new flooring installed. I also want to do my craft room and the entire basement, but those will be later too. I want to concentrate on the master-bath and our kitchen first. We usually paint with semi-gloss finishes, however I really like the look of the flat paint finishes, but I guess they are known to be difficult to keep nice and clean.

What do the rest of you use and prefer. If you have flat paint, has it been a pain to keep it looking nice and does it clean up nice for you? Do any of you have flat painted walls in your kitchens and living rooms? Those are the two rooms I am thinking of using the flat finishes for.

And about colors!! What color are your kitchens? Are they all one color, or do some of you have an accent wall? Right now both our living room and kitchen are a pale blue and I'm thinking of doing our kitchen in a light mocha tan and an accent wall in a yellow (Summer Straw). The living room will no doubt be painted a mocha color as well. Wondering if I should do an accent wall there too.

Decisions, decisions! Anyway... pictures are welcomed if you have the time! I'd love to see some color ideas!

We just started with the dining room. When picking paint the girl told me that the old flat is hard to clean is no longer the case. It is all washable. Unless you add some of the finishes.

Anway, you saw it and now I plan on hiring someone to do the rest of the house:)

Andrea,

I'm like you, I prefer flat finishes for walls. I use Benjamin Moore's Matte Finish in my house. It's actually scrubbable!

I currently have a granny smith apple green kitchen in my house. I just moved into this house in Feb. & I had to work with the black & white tile in my kitchen. It's very cheerful! Sweet Daphne #529 My kitchen is open to a small den so I carried it through to that room also. It really helps brighten up my brown sectional!

I'll attach some pics if you're interested in seeing green! (It won't hurt my feeling if you're not!) lol

I like the flat paint. My whole house except my scraproom is painted Cream in my coffee.

The way my house is laid out I will leave the main parts of the house that color. My craft room is painted kind of blue green color. I can't remember the name. I am going to paint my oldest DD room this summer and I think we are going with Twilight colors kinda! My mom made her a Twilght quilt for Christmas and we are taking the red off of it and doing a wall red and then a Wall black and the rest white. She has the roon above the garage so her room is shaped different and I think it will look really cool.

Having four kids and a dog - I. HATE. FLAT. PAINT!!!! UGH...it's impossible to keep them from smudges and dirt. I am in desperate want to repaint the walls into a semigloss so they are easier to wipe down.

I'm a fan of the semi-gloss and have repainted 2 of the rooms with it and only have the rest of the house to go! hahahahaha

Also, just a tip from someone who's been there done that. Paint your walls FIRST, then do new flooring! That way you don't have to worry about spills, splatters, etc!!!

I'd LOVE to see your apple green Andrea! Combined with the black/white tile, I bet that looks pretty cool!

Sherry C wrote:

Andrea,

I'm like you, I prefer flat finishes for walls. I use Benjamin Moore's Matte Finish in my house. It's actually scrubbable!

I currently have a granny smith apple green kitchen in my house. I just moved into this house in Feb. & I had to work with the black & white tile in my kitchen. It's very cheerful! Sweet Daphne #529 My kitchen is open to a small den so I carried it through to that room also. It really helps brighten up my brown sectional!

I'll attach some pics if you're interested in seeing green! (It won't hurt my feeling if you're not!) lol

Yes, please do share photos when you can, Sherry! I'd love to see your kitchen, it sounds darling! One of our extra bedrooms is painted apple green, well, it's called Brush Meadow, but it looks apple green to me... I love it!

simplyamom3 wrote:

I like the flat paint. My whole house except my scraproom is painted Cream in my coffee.

The way my house is laid out I will leave the main parts of the house that color. My craft room is painted kind of blue green color. I can't remember the name. I am going to paint my oldest DD room this summer and I think we are going with Twilight colors kinda! My mom made her a Twilght quilt for Christmas and we are taking the red off of it and doing a wall red and then a Wall black and the rest white. She has the roon above the garage so her room is shaped different and I think it will look really cool.

Jennifer, the plans for your dd's room sound really cool! My niece has her entire room painted black and then it's splattered everywhere with hot pink! Sounds ridiculous, but it does look pretty cool with all the other black furniture and hot pink accents. Anyway, that Twilight quilt I bet is fabulous that your mom made for her. I am sure your dd treasures that gift!

simplyamom3 wrote:

I like the flat paint. My whole house except my scraproom is painted Cream in my coffee.

The way my house is laid out I will leave the main parts of the house that color. My craft room is painted kind of blue green color. I can't remember the name. I am going to paint my oldest DD room this summer and I think we are going with Twilight colors kinda! My mom made her a Twilght quilt for Christmas and we are taking the red off of it and doing a wall red and then a Wall black and the rest white. She has the roon above the garage so her room is shaped different and I think it will look really cool.

OMGosh! I can't wait to see it! You are such a good Mom!

ReneeLamb wrote:

Having four kids and a dog - I. HATE. FLAT. PAINT!!!! UGH...it's impossible to keep them from smudges and dirt. I am in desperate want to repaint the walls into a semigloss so they are easier to wipe down.

I'm a fan of the semi-gloss and have repainted 2 of the rooms with it and only have the rest of the house to go! hahahahaha

Also, just a tip from someone who's been there done that. Paint your walls FIRST, then do new flooring! That way you don't have to worry about spills, splatters, etc!!!

I'd LOVE to see your apple green Andrea! Combined with the black/white tile, I bet that looks pretty cool!

Ohh yes, Renee... I am definitely planning on painting before we install the new flooring, but I have no idea when we'll be getting the flooring so for now I'm not even going to worry about starting anything with it.

So you like the semi-gloss?! Hmm... it's so hard. I mean, I don't mind the semi-gloss but lately I have really been leaning toward the look of flat. I can totally understand with kids though that it probably would be wise to have the semi-gloss.

Okay, let's see if this works from photobucket!

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I plan to gut/remodel my kitchen in 2 years but this is what I came up with to make it work until then!
Please disregard hideous light fixtures, cheap cabinets, etc. LOL

Sherry C wrote:

Okay, let's see if this works from photobucket!

[img]
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I plan to gut/remodel my kitchen in 2 years but this is what I came up with to make it work until then!
Please disregard hideous light fixtures, cheap cabinets, etc. LOL

That is sooo nice, Sherry! Love the green for a kitchen... very clean and fresh with the black and white! I may need to go green now, lol! Love the curtains in your den too! Beautiful rooms you have and thanks for sharing them with me!

Oh Sherry I love that! I would do my house that color if I could. Green is my fav. color!

Thanks Andrea & Jennifer! It is such a cheerful color, even on a drab, cold day!

Andrea, The window treatments came from Ballard Designs. Ready-made... can't beat that!

Wow Sherry, I now love green for the walls!! Thanks for sharing those pics!!

hey andrea, we just painted our foyer and hallway upstairs Asparagus and it is bright bright bright, LOL! brain loves it but it doesn't match the kitchen but we want to redo that anyway. we are doing hardwood soon so it will look much better then

if you want help striping, i can help...it would just cost you some wine and your infinite Cricut wisdom. I love earth tones but we did our bedroom in a cool blue which i like and we put up some chair rail...but i loe a good neutral that you can just change furniture or towels, etc wheneer you want to versus having to change paint

I am hopeless picking colours for interiors. No photo to much it up with (like a layout). <a href=http
We actually picked the colour scheme in a showhome because we could see the overall effect. How bad is that! Same colour right through the house except in diffrent strengths.

My piece of advice though is that if you take a lot of photos in your house make sure it photographs well as a background! Thats the one thing I dont like about our colour - it always looks blah in photos. LOL

Lesley

ellen s wrote:

hey andrea, we just painted our foyer and hallway upstairs Asparagus and it is bright bright bright, LOL! brain loves it but it doesn't match the kitchen but we want to redo that anyway. we are doing hardwood soon so it will look much better then

if you want help striping, i can help...it would just cost you some wine and your infinite Cricut wisdom. I love earth tones but we did our bedroom in a cool blue which i like and we put up some chair rail...but i loe a good neutral that you can just change furniture or towels, etc wheneer you want to versus having to change paint

Hey, E ... I forget what finish you have... the striping in your dining room area is flat isn't it?
I doubt that I'll do striping on the walls, but you are still welcome to come help paint! If we have wine though, I'm not sure how much painting we'd actually get done, or how good it would actually look! Lol!