A Pocket Door and a Peek

In the midst of drawn out exhausting projects and expensive purchases, quick, painless and affordable DIY jobs are really rewarding and...dare I say...fun. In the last two weeks, we have thrown ourselves full force into dining room projects. With the room fully painted, light fixtures on the way to our doorstep, and the flooring installed and ready to be stained, we have a real sense of momentum. I wanted to hold on to that momentum for as long as my energy would allow.

There is pocket door that leads from our dining room to our half bathroom. The red toned trim and door appear to be original to the house. I always shy away from red/orange stains, so this door rubbed me wrong each time that I looked at it. With pine cabinets in the kitchen, hardwood flooring, pine window trim, and a wood dining table, the last thing we needed was another dose of wood via this door.

You may have noticed that our house is leaning very neutral. I've discovered, during our process, that I prefer lots of neutrals layered together as opposed to too much dramatic color. That's not to say that I want our house to be void of color all together. So, I figured this dated door in need of a face lift, was the perfect spot to incorporate some color. The minute I thought of it, I had to tackle it ASAP. This image that I spotted way back when, may or may not have been my original inspiration.

Source Unknown

But instead of yellow, I really wanted a blue gray color on the door. I gave the door two coats of primer on both sides to ensure good coverage of any wood grain, imperfections, etc. And then, I taped up my top picks for paint colors. I compared them in lighting all throughout the day.  We will be using the same color on our new single lite glass front door, and a patio door that leads to our lower deck, so I wanted to get the color just right. To be honest, after all of my careful thought, I don't know if I nailed the color. Or perhaps, my neutrals loving heart just needs time to fully embrace it. Either way:

Before:
(take note of the burgundy paint that was revealed when we pulled up the baseboards)

After one coat of primer:

After the second coat of primer
and with my assorted paint samples on display.

And finally:

(we removed the old side trim but didn't get around
 to pulling down the upper piece, and I took all of two minutes
to quickly cover up the burgundy paint the trim removal revealed)

At certain times of the day,

the color reads much more gray than blue.

The final color is Benjamin Moore's Boothbay Gray (long sample on the far left), and I chose it after seeing it used on some inspiring images on Pinterest. I thought it was exactly what I was looking for, but it came out more blue then I was ready for. Despite needing time to get use to, it was odd how excited I was to have this door painted.  The door isn't closed very often, but maybe I'll leave it partially ajar more. I love the dose of contrast.

Eventually we'll be adding nice thick trim around the door, and in my dream of all dreams we'll be planking that entire wall (my new theory is: If it's ugly, plank it). But Jon doesn't know that yet. I'm on the hunt for what I'd like to hang above the door to help fill that void of space. Large antlers? Some dishes?

But, nope, I'm not done yet. I figured you were due for a little progress update. Last week, Jon spent four days gathering his supplies, sanding down our sub floor, laying plywood and underlayment, and installing the hardwoods. He actually got it done with time to spare (I know! Crazy!). You got a peek of it above with the red underlayment protruding out.

Here's the full view:

But that didn't last long!

We covered and then carefully stacked all of our remaining hardwood planks on top,

in preparation for demoing and installing our living room space.

In other exciting news, I finally pulled the trigger and ordered my JCPenny over sized chairs online while on sale. They are on back order until May so we sadly won't have them for several months, but at least they are in process. Jon and I are in for a late night of Oscars watching and living room ceiling painting tonight, oh the joys.