Week 2: Picking Paint Colors

This week, Levi and I begrudgingly headed back to our full-time office jobs, so we’ve had a lot less time to work on the house. That said, we’re so lucky and grateful that our full-time jobs are remote, so we can work at night on the Tiger House…. and that they pay us so we can afford to update the house!

Our dog Stormy supervising priming the pine panels

This week, we continued the never-ending painting process. We’re trying to paint the existing wood paneling a light gray color, we’re doing two coats of primer before painting with interior wall paint. Since the wall has gaps between the boards, we also need to use a paint brush between every single board and to trim out around electric/light panels. Like I mentioned last week, we’re using Zinsser B-I-N Interior Multi-Purpose Shellac Primer, which is supposed to be the best for paneled walls because it blocks any sap from seeping out and coats the wood so it has a flatter appearance. When we were at our 10 millionth trip to Lowe’s (possibly a slight exaggeration), we saw a spray can version of the Zinsser primer – so we grabbed it, figuring it would be perfect for getting between the boards. Sadly the spray was a total bust – the base primer is so thick, so when it comes out of the spray can, it’s super inconsistent and required us to run over with a paintbrush again anyways.

Even though painting the primer is taking much longer than Levi or I thought it would, it’s still SO exciting to see the walls transform from a “we own a crossbow and have 40 pounds of frozen deer in the garage” into a bit more of our clean, modern style. This week, we grabbed a TON of paint samples for the walls and trim to fit our light, airy vibe. To be honest, Levi and I picked the first round of paint samples up at Lowe’s and just grabbed whatever paint samples we liked from the on-the-wall swatches. When we came back home, I researched a couple of other color options from Sherwin Williams, which we picked up directly from them.

You never realize how many colors there are in the world until you go paint shopping….. I really wanted a paint color that would look good in our high-light rec room and our low-light dining room area, that was light but still “lake.” We tried all seven colors above in our office (which is a high-light drywall). In the office, Levi and I agreed that we did not like Light French Gray (SW0055), even though everyone on Pinterest swears by it, because it felt much too dark. We both really liked Icy Breeze (HGSW 4058), but it was a little two blue for the entire house. I’m hoping we revisit this color when we start on our bathroom! Useful Gray (HGSW 3497), another who gets a lot of Pinterest love, had too many red-undertones.

Wall color options for the house, shown on the office wall. In order (L-R), the colors are: Milk Bloom, Agreeable Bray, Winter in Paris, Icy Breeze, Light French Gray, Silverpointe, and Useful Gray.

We painted our top four remaining colors, Silverpointe (SW7653), Winter in Paris (Valspar5002-1A), Milk Bloom (HGSW4034), and Agreeable Gray (SW7029), upstairs on a section of double-primed panels to get an idea of how it would look in a different section of the house. Immediately we were able to eliminate Milk Bloom (too yellow and light) and Agreeable Gray (too dark and red), which left Silverpointe and Winter in Paris. After a lot of debate, we decided that Winter in Paris was a little too green, so we added it to the list of “paint colors we should remember for future projects” list and officially decided to move forward with Silverpointe! Up next, color for the trim…

I really wanted to do a dark gray for the trim and baseboards, in part because it has a rustic but clean feel and in part so it would hide the dog hair I’m constantly cleaning off our white trim in Philly. We tested Peppercorn (SW7674), Gauntlet Gray (SW7019), Caviar (SW6990), and Minimalist Gray (HGSW2452) on the wood rafters in the rec room. Quickly Caviar was eliminated for being too dark and Minimalist Gray was eliminated for being too light and red. After checking out the remaining two throughout the day, we realized that Gauntlet Gray was a little too light…. giving us our winner Peppercorn!

Not the best picture, but it shows the trim color options. The far beam (L-R) colors are Caviar, Peppercorn, Gauntlet Gray, then Minimalist Gray. The next beam has Peppercorn, then Gauntlet Gray.

Now that we had the paint colors picked out, we headed down to our local Sherwin Williams store to pick up some paint since the store was having a 30% off sale (through August 10th). We picked up two gallons of Silverpointe in Duration satin finish (which was the middle option of what the sales rep suggested) and one gallon of Peppercorn in Emerald Polyurethane high gloss finish (which is what our contractor suggested to make the beams easier to dust).

In addition to all of the painting work we did this week, we also learned how to clean the paint brushes from the primer (denatured alcohol) and spackled many holes around the house. There’s still so much to accomplish, but we’re getting there with the painting!

---

Things We Purchased This Week: shower curtain for downstairs shower (it’s only 30 inches and the previous shower liner was a regular size and made a mess), a mini Keurig in silver (we NEED coffee for these projects), a completely unnecessary dog toy organizer for Stormy, work boots and gloves for yard work, epoxy to fill some woodpecker holes on the exterior of the house, Sherwin Williams paint, spackle, 20 gallon trash bag, safety glasses, and so many more gallons of the Zinsser B-I-N Interior Multi-Purpose Shellac Primer,

Weird Things We Googled this Week: why do ants have wings, how to keep geese out of your yard, pizza places near me

Note: this post features “affiliate links” – so if you make a purchase from my link, I get a small commission. Promise to only recommend things I’ve purchased and loved myself!

Advertisement