Finally Painting!

So, after putting the gallery wall up, I decided it was time to paint the walls. Ever since we've talked about painting, the den and kitchen have been the first priority. We talked about possibly doing two different colors even though there is a continuous wall (with one little ledge kind of thing) between the two rooms. 

On Saturday, we went to Home Depot armed with two lists of "good grays" and about ten other accumulated color swatches. We got five sample pots and learned how different grays can look even from the swatch to pot -- before even putting it on the wall. 

We had planned all along to paint squares of the choices on each wall of the rooms that we planned to paint. One of the grays that we picked was visibly way darker than we wanted, so we didn't even bother putting that one on the walls. 

Of the ones that we did paint sample spots, two of them were immediately ruled out -- one was way too blue and one was way too pale and purple-y. In fact, the blue was ruled out early enough in the process that it didn't even make it as a sample onto most of the walls. 

It wasn't much of a contest between the two remaining choices -- we chose Benjamin Moore's Stonington Gray unanimously (you know, two votes to zero). We really liked how it looked on all of the walls of the living room AND how it looked with the kitchen cabinets and countertops. So we decided on the spot to paint all the way through from the den to the edge of the kitchen. 

We went out to our local Benjamin Moore supplier -- Virginia Paint Company -- to pick up three gallons of the winning paint along with some other needed supplies. 

On Sunday, after we got home from church, we got to work! Richard rolled the paint, and I did most of the cutting in. We started by taping off the baseboards and around the built in shelves, but since they weren't done very well the first time (i.e. bad caulking), none of the lines were terribly clean to begin with. It ended up being easier to forgo the painter's tape and just pay extra close attention. 

We worked quickly, but (I'd like to think) cleanly, and got the first coat on in about an hour or so. Then Richard's friend Brandon came over to help with the second coat while I went for a run. :)