Lots. Of. Painting.

It starts so innocently, so offhandedly, so inexpensively.

The carpet on the stairs needs replaced. Easy.

No.

Because what we really want is a hardwood staircase, just like the first floor of the house. So we're going to rebuild the staircase, replace the wooden balusters with iron because, well, what the heck -  there we are with a dismantled staircase - and remove some (really unattractive) trim on the woodwork.

But that all comes later. Later because first we are going to rip up the carpeting in all the bedrooms and the hallway and put a wood floor down. But first first, since the bedrooms are emptied one at a time for the floor work, we're painting the rooms because, well, what the heck - there we are with a dismantled bedroom.

So my daughter's beautiful & bold room of about eight years is transformed. The three colors we used then: a warm tomato-pumpkin on one wall, and a pea-lime and bright blue on either side of the chair rail on the other three. Trust me, it was a great look and suited her style and decor when she was...14.
Now she chose the sophisticated and mysteriously-changing shade "northern cliffs" from Benjamin Moore:

It's grey, it's green (really), it's mauve, it's putty. It's quite lovely with the white woodwork and the new floor. I'd like to thank Benjamin Moore for coming up with their line of Aura paint, which actually did cover those deep colors in one coat, although I applied two.

DS2 has finally decided to move into his older brother's room, said brother only needing a bedroom in the house for a handful of weeks each year. After much deliberation, his choice of "evening dove" and "silvery moon" is stunning:

The dark and stormy blue is gorgeous. DH just painted one wall with it - one coat of Aura - in a flat finish and it is fantastic. My job is to do the other three walls in the silvery grey - what a nice room this will be, especially once we come up with windows and bedding.

For the third room, I am going to take the extra gallon of "northern cliffs" back to the store and have them take it to a darker shade, just to make it a little different from DD's. All of the traipsing around for paint swatches has given me yet another opportunity to tell my family that buying a Benjamin Moore deck of swatches is an easy and great gift idea....