Painting the office

The office was one of the last rooms in the house to have the original Navajo white walls. That changed today. It's now freshly painted in Pigeon Gray (DE6214), the same color we used in our master bedroom and bath, with Light Beige (DE6211) for the ceilings. Looks rich with the new dark oak floors and the pop of white trim.

Home office project colors and materials

We're going to paint the office the same Pigeon Gray (DE6214) that we used in our master suite and really liked. We chose a beautiful textured melamine called Milano Gray for the desk and hutch, set off with a Caesarstone desktop. Caesarstone is a manufactured quartz that we'd heard of from our designer friend, and had been seeing in new homes and remodeled kitchens. It has the rich look of granite, but with a durable non-porous surface. There are a number of manufactured quartz products out there these days, but we really liked the colors and textures of Caesarstone. Saturday we went to Planet Stone to make our final selection. We decided the richest compliment and contrast to the desk and the wall would be 4360 Wild Rice.

Finally adding color to the upstairs

After 13 years of the original off-white, we finally painted the upstairs with some color. We really liked the taupe tones we had used downstairs, and so we continued that for most of the upstairs, painting the landing spaces in Fine Grain (DE6213) and our master bedroom in the one-notch darker Pigeon Gray (DE6214). In the guest bedroom, we went just a little bold and chose a green (DE6263 Pistachio Shell). We added crown molding in both bedrooms. And we painted the fireplace mantel and the bathroom cabinets dark.

And note that Florencia has been retired from her position over the mantel and is now gracing the guest bedroom. In her place is a 1940's oil painting of the Place de la Madeleine in Paris, which George scored using the One Kings Lane website.

Adding color to the downstairs walls

So after ten years of living with nearly our whole house with its original white walls, we finally decided to get into some color, at least in the downstairs. Since we've been working on redesigning the living room anyway, this was the right time. So our friend Mary, an interior designer, came over with her Dunn Edwards color strips, and we had swatches from the new couch we'd ordered, and we started pondering colors. For most of the walls, we wanted a neutral color that would add richness, and make the white trim (including the new crown molding) pop, but wouldn't call attention to itself. We settled on Fine Grain (DE6213), a warm gray taupe that was prominently featured in this year's Pasadena Showcase House of Design. We used that on most of the downstairs walls.

Mary suggested using a couple tones lighter on the same color strip for the ceiling (Light Beige DE6211), and then going a shade or two darker for accent colors on the fireplace wall and the opposite family room wall. So we went for Pigeon Gray (DE6214) in the family room, and one notch darker to Wooden Peg (DE6215) to contrast the white fireplace mantel. That worked out great in the family room, but in the living room, when we saw the color on the wall, it was just a bit too Army greenish in cast, and we had to do a hasty color reselection. (They always say you should get a sample of your colors, and paint a big patch on the wall to see how it really looks. We knew that, but we're impatient.) So, for the fireplace wall, Wooden Peg was painted over and replaced with Cobblestone Path (DE6068), a brown of similar darkness but with purple casts rather than green casts. It's marvelous. Finally, in the raised part of our coffered ceiling in the dining room, we picked a pale sky blue called Blustery Wind (DE 6304). We also used that color on the wall of the stairway landing, and echoed it in the back of the niche where Guanyin sits.