A Fireplace Painted, a Media Room Reborn

Last week, we bought paint at the Benjamin Moore place over in McLean.  Our colors we chose for the den are the Ruby Dusk (henceforce, referred to as RD) color we used as a 'pop' color in the New Space, and 2 colors that are really close together on the Ben Moore Palette one called Twisted Oak Path (henceforce, referred to as TOP), which we used in the foyer and hallway, and the other called Marble Canyon (henceforth, referred to as MC), which we used in the Dining room cove space and the wall of the peninsula in the Kitchen.  Our vision (after much deliberation) was to paint the wood paneled walls MC in a flat latex, the wall behind the sofa and on the wall where the TV nook is RD also in a flat latex, finally on the blah brick fireplace, we would us a satin semi-gloss finish of the TOP color.  Now, I am really not a fan of painted brick, especially when it's interesting brick, but our fireplace was placed in the corner of the room, so it's not a focal point and never can be, and while we use it occasionally, its a highly inefficient gas fireplace that we will have to replace eventually, and it's really hard to light...so it's practically unused.

We spent all day on Saturday painting, M focussed on the fireplace because it had to be primed first, and I started on the walls.  We finished up at about 5pm and went to a neighborhood party.  It was a Miami themed party replete with Cuban food and a Latin jazz combo!  They even played my favorite "Girl from Ipanema"!  

I bailed on church on Sunday, thinking that Providence would forgive me because I had a goal in mind...even though I was working on a Sabbath.  I was able to finish the walls and apply a first coat to the fireplace before noon when M got home.  After lunch (a squash and pepper fritata with the last squashes and peppers from the garden this year :-( [sniff]  ), M went to work on a second coat on the fireplace and I spot painted and started putting the speakers and the room back together.  One caveat that I didn't discover until I was about half way done with the fireplace, the guy a Ben Moore's mixed up the paint can tops, and he put the TOP lid on the MC, and the MC lid on the TOP can.  So our fireplace is actually MC and the wood paneled walls are TOP, the colors are so close that it's not a huge deal, certainly not enough to redo it.

Follow me downstairs and I'll show you:

This is heading down to the den from the hallway.  Monday night I covered the speaker wires in an ivory colored wire-concealer that blends fairly well with the TOP, so the wires are sort of hidden now.  I have pics of that below.

That's the stairwell down into the den, and part of the RD wall.

This was taken Monday night after I'd put the speaker wire in a concealer, no dangling wires, however when I removed the tape that I'd been holding up the speaker wire with it pulled the paint off the white trim, so I'll need to do some touch up on the trim.  You can tell how close these colors are here.  The MC is a fraction darker than the TOP, the only bummer to me is that I really wanted the brick in a semi-gloss instead of a flat paint.  Oh well.  The mantel came off really easily, it was held on by that bevelled strip you see below.  M wants to stain it and polyurethane it.

Here's the wall behind the sofa in the RD color.  I really like this color, it's bold and warm.  The windows are currently covered by dirty, dated vertical blinds.  Our next BIG chore is to order wooden blinds and get rid of these hideous things.  Eventually, we need to do something with this couch, but it's ok for now.  M cleaned it really well after the construction was done.  We want to replace the cushion and pillow fabric with something less "southwest-y".

That box below in the corner is our electrical junction box.  I wanted it to be the RD color so it wouldn't draw as much attention to itself.  I am going to hide the wires on the other side of the room tonight.

Finally, heres our TV in its nook.  The room is still not 100% put together, of course.  As I said the wires are going to be concealed tonight.  We still need to install the quarter round to finish the floors (there goes another Saturday!). But we feel like we're over the hump now, that the painting is done downstairs.

We'll that's all for now. Have a great week eer-one!

S'all for now,

cc