Some New House Updates

We closed on the new house last week and promptly had it cleaned, top to bottom, including the windows inside and out. The house is now spotless and ready to be painted! My fingers are crossed that the painters are actually there today starting their work, which should take about a week to complete. Let's hope so since we need to move next weekend.

We decided to paint the living room, hallways and kitchen Benjamin Moore's Ivory White. I think it will look sunny and warm, but not too yellow:

The kitchen ceiling will be BM's Breath of Fresh Air:

The guest bedroom will be BM Washington Blue:

We decided that the dining room should be a warmer shade than the living room and kitchen, so we're going with BM's Cream Fleece. So the flow from one small room to the next is the same, but I think this shade will look nicer for sitting around a dinner table:

A Phoebe Howard room

The two upstairs bedrooms will be BM Horizon (a pale gray with a tiny hint of blue):

The front bedroom will have early light, so I didn't want it to light up like a giant pumpkin in the morning. Gray seems restful and also a nice back drop for any and all bedding, artwork, rugs etc that we will add in later.  Our bedroom faces west and is shaded by some large locust trees. So I wanted it to feel as light as possible. I think this gray will work on both counts.

Back in the living room, the big picture window is clearly a focal point, so we've spent lots of time thinking about shades and curtains.

Since Phoebe Howard is my Southern style guru, I'm following her advice for dressing a window:

Bamboo roman shades + ceiling to floor curtains and Greek key trim.

This farmhouse kitchen from a Design*Sponge home tour was my inspiration for valances on the windows over the kitchen sink:

I'll probably zig-zag the bottom like the one above in this print from Ballard Designs:

As an alternative to this Celerie Kemble for Schumacher, which is way out of my price range, but so, so beautiful:

The gears are already turning on what to do to the exterior (anyone have a perfect pale, pale yellow for exterior brick that they want to share?), but I think I have my hands full for the time being.