White

In our old house, we used Benjamin Moore's Simply White on everything...Cabinets, shelves, walls, trim, doors, windows. 

Well, its time to start thinking of interior colors for our new house. Due to the sheer magnitude of the decision making over the last three months, we have decided to keep it simple (and familiar) and paint everything (doors, trim, walls, windows) one color - white. 

If I had the slightest notion to use different wall colors throughout the house before, it is gone now. 

Completely. 

Mike was perplexed as to why we wouldn't just keep it extremely, "simple," and use Simply White again. 

I suppose I feel that a new house should have a new white (to us). 

But what is white? Our old guest house was also painted in Simply White and it's astounding how white it looked despite actually being more of an off-white or creamy beige. 

Below is a swatch of Simply White. 

Simply White 

So the search for the perfect white (or non-white) begins. Here is what I've gathered so far. 

Glacier White 

This is much darker than Simply White. 

Decorators White 

This is quite grey. 

Chantilly Lace 

This seems most white compared to the others, with a hint of grey undertones. 

White Dove 

White Dove is exceedingly popular with designers and non-designers alike. It looks rather beige on the swatch, but looks crisp and white on walls and trim. 

Harwood Putty 

I found this color in Benjamin Moore's Williamsburg Collection. Again, like the above non-whites, it looks as crisp as white can be.  So far, I am favoring this one. 

But the search is not complete, especially since I haven't begun to do test swatches on any of the walls in the house. 

So do you have any favorite whites to share?  

Below are the colors you've suggested in your comments: 

Gorge Water CLW 1031W

Linen White (BM)

Cloud White (BM)

China White (BM)

Ivory White (BM) 

Swiss Coffee (BM)

Incredible White (Sherwin Williams)

Parchment Paper (Behr)

Pointing (Farrow and Ball)

Dover White (Sherwin Williams)

Thank you so much for your paint suggestions! 

I so appreciate your input on the topic. 

What a difference another weekend makes...

For some reason, these images are less startling to me than the last ones. Perhaps because we're now at the stage of building back, instead of tearing out.  That's progress, right? 

It seems so long ago that the upstairs bathroom looked like this. Little did we know at the time just how much of this room would change. 

And it all began with a hidden window...

We are thinking of centering the bathtub on the south facing window.

The old sink was to the right of the window, in front of the door way (black plastic). It will be nice to open up that entrance more without the sink being there. The new sink will go to the left of the 'hidden' window.

The shower will, hopefully, go in the linen closet which you can barely see to the right of the door. 

Linens will go... Hmmm, wish we could have both the linen closet and separate shower. Linens will have to go somewhere else in the room, or in the hallway closet just outside the bathroom door. 

It's snowing this morning. I believe winter is tiptoeing, ever so quietly, into our landscape once again. 

Beautiful seasons. 

Master Bath Updates

I have to admit that I was a bit taken aback by this sight. Mike said that the plumber needed to get into some walls and so he (Mike) would be starting to demo the upstairs bathroom over the weekend- this is part way through that task. 

There's the new (old) window that we uncovered. 

We will be re-arranging a few things, sink and bathtub switching places (approximately). 

The loo is the only thing that will remain the same, although facing a different direction. 

To the left of the door (black plastic), we are putting in a shower. We hemmed and hawed about this and in the end, decided that we needed the shower separate from the bathtub. 

The shower is actually going to be in the linen closet, a compromise for sure but we decided that having a shower on its own was going to be far more useful. 

Lots to do...

Weekend Updates...And a Snow Storm

As the snow started to accumulate yesterday afternoon, Mike ran over to our new house to check on things. I also asked him to take some photos so that I could see some of the progress going on inside. 

I had been to the house earlier that morning but it was very blustery so the children and I only stayed for a moment and stayed in the car.  Usually when we go over, we run around the yard and peek inside the windows. 

This is a photo taken from the far end of our property. 

One thing I was able to see from the car was that the painter had made great progress on the barn. The whole house will eventually be painted but due to rain delays, only the barn will get done before winter. Here it is with the red paint scraped off. 

I was excited to see the progress on the center hall stairs. The floor re-finishers scraped a great deal of the paint off the stairs by hand. 

The floors in the downstairs bathroom are also coming along nicely. 

The east parlor (which will be an office) looks so much brighter without the grey painted floors. 

I was so excited to see these images, as the new wide plank floors in the kitchen are starting to be laid. It is such an improvement from the 1950's vinyl flooring that was in there before. I am putting our kitchen dining nook in front of this window,  although not exactly sure which table and chairs we'll use. 

Here are the floors on the south side of the kitchen. The 2 x4's along the wall are to make the room more square as there was quite a difference in wall profile. 

And here's the west side of the kitchen. 

This is the west parlor. 

And the landing in the center hall. 

Back at our other home (our rental house), we lost power just before sunset. Thankfully, I had just taken out all of our battery operated candles for a dear friend's birthday the day before. 

The batteries last forever and there is of course, no fire hazard in using them. 

The quite scene outside our window just before dark fell.