Renovating a Cape Cod Style Cottage | Living Room | Choosing Paint Colors

Hey friends! Hope you’re enjoying a fun weekend, wherever you are. It’s a clear day with lots of sunshine here in Western Mass, though hats and gloves are still a must, and rosy cheeks and cold noses are pretty much the rule.  There’s a lot going on at our house and in our neighborhood these days. We recently joined a Buy Nothing Giveaway Facebook group and this morning participated in our first neighborhood event. We set up a station at the end of our driveway and pilled it high with things we were ready to part with, sort of. I gave away all my duck prints and decoys (reluctantly) and passed on my waterfowl obsession to a sweet old lady who took the whole bunch. Giving up something you really like sucks, but it can also be freeing (and creates room for new obsessions 🙂 ).

The difficult part (for me) about these neighborhood swaps is to give away more stuff than we end up bringing home. We got rid of toys and old books and fabric remnants, and said waterfowl prints, but also brought home puzzles, a telescope, a heart-shaped jewelry box I could not resist, and (more!) stuffed animals. My heart was set on a wicker love seat one of our neighbors was giving away, but sadly could not think of a place for it in our home. 

Aside from preparing for the Buy Nothing Giveaway, this week I’ve spent quite a few hours painting. After procrastinating  for the better part of the last four months, I finally got around to painting our living room beams. I usually love painting and find it quite relaxing – but painting ceiling beams can be rough, because of all the prep work involved. The unfinished wood we used had to be sealed with shellac, which smells and gives you a headache and needs time to cure, the thousand nail holes had to be filled and then sanded, the seams had to be caulked and then primed. All these steps were BO-RING, but absolutely necessary, so I soldiered up. Now the fun part has begun – one more coat of paint to go and I’m done, but it’s already made a huge difference. I am using Linen White by Benjamin Moore in a matte finish that visually hides all of the imperfections in the wood.

The thing I’m super excited about is landing on a living room color. Surprisingly it only took me about a week and two trips to the paint store, but it’s settled and painting is under way. I had looked at blues and greens and decided on the latter as I was afraid blue would look too cold. Plus, I could never tire of green. This particular green I chose has a subtle yellow undertone and coordinates very well with the warm Wythe Tan I used in our family room. Here’s a sneak peek of my decision-making process 🙂 :

I narrowed down my choices to two colors I liked – a light chartreuse (above – left) and a spring green (above – right), both from Farrow & Ball – ordered sample pots, painted two boards I had left in the garage and then stared at them in different lighting conditions. The lighter green turned out to have too much yellow, which stood out even more during sunny mornings and late afternoons, and did not provide enough of a contrast with the family room color, which is already quite yellow. Here’s a corner of our cottage living room that’s already been painted:

So I ended up choosing the darker green, a Farrow & Ball color called Cooking Apple Green, mixed in a Benjamin Moore paint for cabinet and trim in a semi-gloss finish, and I absolutely love it!

The paint has a very strong odor and slows me down considerably as I need to let the room air for a day or two between coats. I’m almost done but my wrist needs a break so I’ll probably wrap it up late next week, just in time for Easter. Anyway, that’s pretty much it on the home front. What have you been up to?

If you’d like to read more about our cottage living room renovation, make sure to check out the following blog stories:

Our Cottage Living Room | Getting Ready to Paint

Our Cottage Living Room | Getting the Interior Architecture Right

Thanks for stopping by!