Welcome Home

If there’s one thing you should know about me, it is that I LOVE COLOR. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good white walled room with a crisp white sofa. Drool. But when it comes to my personal home, a neutral room is considered four pops of color rather than twenty. Hey, it’s my house right?!? And one more important note: my husband is wonderful and he gives me free reign on the inside of our home. Even though we were pretty young and crazy when we started dating, God must have known what he was doing. I ALWAYS get that same question, “does your husband care what you do…buy…paint?” So for the record, the answer is “no”. Okay, now back on track…

Now that I have gotten my first overly wordy explanatory blog post about Addison’s Wonderland out of the way, I would like to say:

Welcome to My Home!

In December of 2013, we found our dream home. It was a beautiful home on a gorgeous piece of property in the city we wanted but in our minds, it needed some work. Although difficult to tell in pictures, it was in bad shape in some areas. The floors looked like a pack of wild dogs with long nails had occupied the inside for quite some time, the ceilings in some places looked like a herd of elephants had stomped on the second floor and the basement smelled like something not appropriate for this blog. HOWEVER, we loved it! Well, we loved what our minds had dreamed up. The house had amazing potential. Having a good “vision” is equally a blessing and a curse. A blessing when you find your very own “diamond in the rough” and a curse when your potential dream home requires some TLC and some dollar bills.

So, without further ado, meet our dream home foyer (Circa December 2013)…

BEFORE

Yes, it was pretty beautiful before. With the exception of some terribly scratched floors and minimal sheetrock damage, this room was in good shape. Here are the cosmetic changes we made…

1. PAINT

Wall Color: PONDER by Sherwin Williams

Trim Color: DOWNY by Sherwin Williams

Ceiling Color: CARDBOARD METALLIC by Sherwin Williams

Ceiling Basecoat: CARDBOARD by Sherwin Williams

2. AND MORE PAINT…

Doorway Trim Color: Custom 1/2 & 1/2 Mix Of-

STUNNING SHADE by Sherwin Williams and DARKROOM by Sherwin Williams

After the initial painting was complete, I decided to have the trim around our front doors painted dark.

3. LIGHTING

I always encourage my clients to find their “inspiration piece” for their room or for their entire home. Once I saw this turquoise chandelier that was it for me! We didn’t even have a home picked out yet at the time but by golly I was going to find a place for this piece of awesomeness. It served as my inspiration piece for my entire home.

4. FLOORING

Minwax 22750 1/2 Pint Wood Finish Interior Wood Stain, Jacobean

We actually had all of our hardwoods sanded down and re-stained before the lighting was installed but at the time, I thought maybe we could do without re-staining the stairs. I had contemplated adding a colorful rug runner up the stairs, etc. Although painful to admit, I was wrong. Terribly wrong. Once the main level flooring was done, the stairs stood out like a sore thumb. And since by this point, we had already moved in, having the stairway sanded and re-stained was a nightmare. They tried their best to move our furniture and plastic off the other rooms but the dust found it’s way into every nook and cranny in our entire house. I swear I am still finding it places now six months later. Lesson learned and one point for the hubby on that bad call!

To Be Continued…

In an effort to not make my first design post the longest in blogging history, I will stop right there for now. Look for my future posts with a full foyer tour as well as more information on our ombre stairs!