White Chocolate, White Coffee or Swiss Coffee

Like I've mentioned, nearly everything in our house was original when we first bought it in 2007. The house was built in 1997, so updates are needed. I am pretty sure that the fireplace has been painted at some point, but the green fireplace with our gray/blue walls is nasty and not working. I decided that an off-white color would look good, a color that would be similar to the cabinet in our kitchen. I thought this would help ensure that two big "pieces" in our family room/kitchen area would compliment one another and not compete.

I also wanted a color that would be a white that we could use on other things in our house. So if moulding or doors need to be painted white in the future, everything will tie together. And so far, it has worked. Our fireplace and now the spindles on our stairs are both Swiss Coffee by Behr.

Before painting the fireplace, I checked a couple of blogs about how to paint brick. Some of their tips proved to be helpful, a couple of other tips did not. For instance, they said to use a pretty nappy roller. This = good. Also shared, was you can use any finish you want. I chose flat. This = bad. I would now do a satin or eggshell finish and plan to do so in the future when I go over the entire fireplace again. This will make it way easier to clean and won't allow gunk and makeup to settle into the paint.

It was also shared that I didn't need to use a primer if the brick that I didn't need a primer if the brick had already been painted. This = good, though I still needed three coats of paint. After two coats, I discovered that the little pin holes were not filling up with color and some of the chunks also looked odd. I decided to fill them with caulking, then painted the third coat over everything. This help a lot and made everything look smooth and uniform.

The entire fireplace took a coat of paint.

Then we have painted our new staircase moulding and spindles with the Swiss Coffee, for this one we bought the Primer and Paint in one since it was raw wood. I have since read that it is best to do a wood conditioner on the raw wood so it takes the paint better and the knots don't end up coming through the paint color.

Behr Soft Denim for Kitchen and Family Room

Spruced up our plain white walls in time for my sister's bridal shower that was being held at my house. Man, it was tough finding the right color for our place though. The goal? Gray/blue walls that seem to be so popular right now. There are so many shades and each look different once on the wall and in the space.

The color was to be used in our entry way from the garage, the family room, and the kitchen. It doesn't have a lot of natural light in those areas, so I didn't want a color to make it too dark and cave like.

Look at that horrible carpet and green fireplace, we need color and updates badly!

The color I chose is part of the new Primer and Paint line from Behr at Home Depot, Soft Denim. Though I thought it leans toward the blue side of things, I feel it was the best color that still seemed like a neutral with our couch, decorations, trim, white cabinets, and wood furniture.

Mid painting, with one coat on the right side and none on the left.

Once the entire space was done, I feel like I am really happy with it. It does make our counters look a bit on the pink side, but they need to be replaced anyway. I love the color with my bronze curtain rod (score from Big Lots) and I think it will look great once I paint that green fireplace white.

I've even tested some other paint colors that look gray/blue on my walls since, but they always come out more on the gray side, so it proves that I made the right color choice. One friend came over and immediately asked what colors my walls are. She shared that she has been looking for a gray/blue color forever and really likes ours. Yay! Friend approved too.