Feeling a Little Grey (or is it Gray?)

No, I’m feeling grey about the never-ending kitchen renovation, that’s actually coming along.

Back in November, Ipurchased some new cream colored thermal draperies for our basement Rec Room (found here).  After I hung them I decided that the room looked a little too beige for my taste and thought that maybe one day down the road I would paint the space.  Yulp, I decided to do exactly that this weekend!  Bye, bye drabby beige, hello glorious grey!

As you may or may not remember, this is what our basement Rec Room looked like:

Too much beige-y beige, right?   Beige walls, beige sofa, beige drapes…beige everything.  I said, “ENOUGH WITH THE BEIGE”!  I am full of personality, why shouldn’t my basement be?!  I had almost a full gallon of grey paint sitting on my paint shelf.  It was leftover from the painting disaster I named ‘A Console that Needed a Consult’, mentioned here.  I’m not exactly sure what color the paint is, the can didn’t reveal a name, only a color recipe.

It took about an hour of prep to get the basement furniture removed and/or covered with plastic.

After a really good 5 minute shake of the can I was off and going.  I would like to ‘self-gloat’ here and let you know I started out (and completed) this paint job without the assistance of tape or the square edgy tool (that’s a technical term, but the way)….first time ever giving up the edging tool!  (and my steady hand actually did much better).

On a side note, I would like to point out I do NOT have my hair in a ponytail and headband…When I posted about grout (found here) I noted how I always seem to wear my hair in that fashion during home reno.

Back to the paint.  I decided just paint the front wall where the glass sliding door sits, just to make sure I liked the color.  Here is a pic of the beige and grey against each other.  The picture doesn’t do anything for the grey paint color.  You really can’t tell what color it is from this “it’s starting to become dark outside” photo.

With much contemplation I decided I did (sort-of) like the color.  I felt like it may be a little dark, but after all my furniture was back in place and pictures were  back on the wall it may not appear so cave-like.  I continued.  Yesterday morning I got up like a little kid on Christmas day and scurried to the basement.  It was a beautiful blue sky day and that awesome yellow sun shone brightly in my freshly painted room.  LOVE.  Serious.  Love. It.  I had some touch-up to do yesterday, but after it dried I moved everything back into place while Ryan was off looking for dishwasher brackets at Sears.

And without further ado…..drumroll please….my updated, non-beige Rec Room:

Apparently I really like grey.  I was thinking about it, and my dining room is a dark grey, my office is a medium grey, my kitchen is a really light grey, my basement bath is the same light grey as the kitchen (mentioned here), and now my basement is a dark-ish grey.  That’s four different grey’s in case you lost count.  Grey is the new neutral, just like pink is the new black…haha, I made that up.

Here is a close up of the drapes against the grey walls.  Much better than how they looked against the beige.

I know I highlighted the Rec Room, but adjacent to that space is a hallway that leads to a guest room, a bath, and our laundry room.  So of course that space needed to be painted yesterday as well.  I was afraid that the dark grey would make the hall feel small and closed in, but with so many white doors in such a small space it actually looks really good.  All of the white trim and doors pop against the grey walls.  This is the best picture I could get of the small hall:

It officially took me eight hours to complete and I am in love.  I keep going downstairs to just stare at the walls and see how much a gallon of paint can transform a space.  I totally feel like a 12 year old girl ogling Justin Bieber.  Grey paint= the equivalent of Justin Bieber in my book….until I have a new project, then that will be my new Justin Bieber (or Justin Beaver- as I thought that was his name until just about a year ago).

In true Before and After DIY fashion, here is the obligatory split screen photo (although the grey doesn’t appear true to life):

Because I already owned the Olympic NO VOC paint, the cost of this project is ZERO!  I heart projects that only cost me sweat equity.

P.S. I looked up the spelling of “Grey” or “Gray” to find out which one is correct and it turns out both are!  Gray is more commonly found in the United States whereas Grey is used more frequently in Great Britain.

Happy Monday!