It is a pretty bland entry picture, but this is what we have been up to today - picking colors for the upstairs walls. We are leaning toward the one on the left and the darker one on the right is, right out - I don't know what my wife was thinking with that one.
Our last place was an apartment and we knew we weren't staying there forever - but we still wanted it to be our style. We decided on white, but not just any white, the whitest of whites that was available in Finland, which as you can imagine, must be pretty white. It was called "Lumi" (which means snow) and we were really happy with it and how it held up for the five years we were living there. When we sold our apartment, which also had white floors as well as white bathroom and kitchen cupboards, it was still in good enough condition that the new owners thought we had renovated it to sell.
This time however, we are not planning on moving anytime soon and we want to have something a little different for us. This is an old house so rather than having everything modern and hard, we want to soften it a bit and especially upstairs, make it feel warmer and cozier. The wooden floors will be painted white again, but in an old house with solid wood beams, it has quite a different feel to it, kind of like a cozy cottage.
While there might not be a lot of difference between the left and the middle patches, the left has a very slight rose in it, while the middle has a tinge of green. The middle was our original pick from the swatches as it was meant to be neutral, but once on the wall, it was obvious that it wasn't going to give us the warmth we want.
Slight variations in color can make a huge difference to the feel of a room, especially for those who notice these kinds of things - like I do. One thing that I am pretty good at is matching color and differentiating tones and shades. I wonder if it is genetic or, it comes from watching my dad mix colors on his palette for his paintings. He was incredible at it, as he wouldn't match the color on the palette as he saw it, he would match it in the shade that it would dry and I never saw him get it wrong.
The other thing that I want to consider is that I will also be using some Phillips Hue lighting to accent some parts of the walls, and I want the wall color to be suitable to bounce light without adding too much of its own tone in. With the white floors, we will be able to move the entire feel of the room very easily and in Finland where it is pretty much dark day and night for half the year, lighting is important, as is the mood it can bring since it is possible to go weeks without seeing natural light, if busy with work.
Speaking of busy, this weekend is going to be a jam-packed painting bonanza, but we are now heading off to my wife's parent's place for a coffee to celebrate Father's Day tomorrow. Normally we would be there on the day, but he was in hospital for a week and is still feeling pretty poor. So rather than entertaining twice, we will go tonight and my sister-in-law and her family will go tomorrow.
I guess at least, tomorrow I should get some breakfast in bed before starting to paint. Perhaps.
Taraz
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