Spanish Colonial Update Finish Selection Progress

The Paint well…let’s just say I finally made a decision.Benjamin Moore’s Spanish White it is! This is not an accurate representation of the color at all at least on my monitor.

My painter (Mr. H) did not want me to drag the decision out any longer!  Spanish white seems to work the best with the other finishes I am dealing with. It does run the gamut with the different lighting in the three rooms. As you may recall my house is thin wall plaster so the Spanish White had to start in the upstairs hallway where we are dealing with these beams that were done over 25 years ago.

They were painted with a gray (custom mixed by me) and some sort of gray wash (also mixed by me) over the top. The entryway is 24 feet high and since  I am still quite happy with the color repainting was not an option.  This was issue #1 we had to deal with. Issue #2…The trim and doors in the hallway had  also been repainted not that long ago (White Dove) which we also did not want to repaint.
Issue #3 The ceilings downstairs were sandblasted  by Mr. H (25+ years ago), hand scraped, then underpainted with some kind of beigy color, then white (who knows what another of my custom mixes) and scraped by me (ahhh to be young again).  I still really like these ceilings as well.

Here is a sneakity peek of what the windows will look like painted dark. That is Spanish White painted around the window.This picture was before all the walls were finished.  If you decide to paint your windows dark go much lighter than you think.  They can look really harsh if the color is too close to black in my opinion.The color we chose is Sherwin Williams Black Fox (a color that emulates iron)

At first I thought I had lost my mind, but I am loving them. Mr. H worked like a dog last weekend and got all the windows done.  This weekend hopefully all the french doors and windows will be done.

In the meantime  I am painting the cabinets.  They are under painted decorators white with an overwash of 3 parts (driftwood stain) and one part dark walnut.  I call driftwood stain my “drug of choice” as it can create miracles.  It is sort of a greeney gray which can make new wood look old and the walnut  warms it up ever so slightly. I wanted a very light glaze.  My cabinets have sort of a “rough luxe” look that I wanted to preserve. My system is an old one as I am not adept at any of the new painting techniques. Actually  I am not adept at this either but I can muddle through. Before painting the cabinets with decorators white I took  a candle  and lightly waxed the edges and anywhere I wanted to rub off the paint. I painted the cabinets with three coats (yep you heard it three folks!) of flat latex (decorators white) sanding in betweeen each coat.  The last coat I sanded the edges ever so lightly to reveal just a peek  of the wood beneath. I then applied my wash and rubbed it off.  I will finish with a couple of coats of clear paste wax.

Okay now for the fun part.  As you recall this is the tile I selected for the backsplash (Medittereanean 8 from Tabarka Tile).You can see more of their options here http://www.tabarkastudio.com/.  We received the sample late last week. Did I mention that I am in love with this tile?  See my recent post here

The fabulous Brenda Davis of Brenda Davis Painting (http://brendadavispainting.com/home.html) is going to do our concrete overlay counters. Because our current tile is uneven Mexican tile we (Leo from Hattersley Construction) are tearing out the counters so she has a clean surface to start with.  If you have an existing tile counter, or another old even surface she can go right over them.  It is much less expensive than stone and concrete and has a fabulous look. We wanted a simple limestone look but she can emulate nearly any surface you can imagine. Here are the samples that Brenda prepared

#1                                                                        #2

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#3                                                                          #4

Here are Brenda’s samples with the beautiful tile.  The majority of the tile will be in the off white (field) with the decorative tile as an accent liner.

Here is a shot with one of the finished cabinet doors.

It is hard to see but there is a small dot of gray in the center of each decorative tile.  I would love to hear which sample is your favorite.  We all love the texture of sample #1.  What do you think? Don’t worry I will be infusing some splashes of color.  I will tackle that in my next post.