Wow- I love it. It looks great!

Heyyyyyyyyy!!

Nice job!! and the railing really does look great in black -- after all -- it is so slimming ......

((just teasing! LOL!))

Jan -- who is always glad to help -- and is always amazed when my suggestion really works in real life ..... LOL! :)

Oh, it looks so much better and good choice too to do it in matte. I love all of your color choices.

I have a suggestion as well--which is to take away the pillar candles from the entry table and replace with the lamp that is in the second pic.

Sorry that the FP is on hold--esp. with winter coming soon; but it sounds a prudent decision to wait until you can do it right. It is water tight around the flashing, isn't it? Perhaps you could cover it up with a FP screen or something since I seem to recall you had a lack in insulation in that area. When we did our remodel, we had a screen screwed into our existing FP that we no longer needed and I was surpised that it sold quite easily on CL.

I think it looks great!! It really makes your entry way pop!

Yes, the railing looks sooo much better. It even looks better from outside. Our front door is painted black, and you can see the railing and photos from the huge side windows, so it ties in perfectly from there. :)

Val -- I will check tonight to see if there is an outlet in the entry. I don't think there is anything to plug in a light, though.

The fireplace flashing is, um, not water tight, which is a concern. Luckily, we live in So. Cal., so it might not be too wet this winter. If it starts to get rainy, I'll have to bite the bullet and put the fp on the credit card, but we're concerned that we may lose our renters in our old house (which didn't sell due to the crazy market -- that's the whole reason for the lack of $$ in the Schlos household) so we don't want to run up the CC too much since we may need the cushion while we're looking for new renters. We should know one way or the other by the end of this month.

We have a detached screen in front of the FP now, which I plan to sell on CL when we finally redo. So far, DS hasn't paid much attention to the FP, but he probably will when we start blazing fires there. I'm actually a little grateful for global warming this fall, as it is still in the mid-to-upper 80s here, so we may not need it until after we can afford to fix it. Ha!

I've chosen a cast-stone bolection style fp surround that has a shelf depth of 10''. The chimney repair guys are going to rebuild the firebox a bit in order to enlarge the opening so that it meets code and isn't quite so squatty. It'll someday look something like this:

Your room is so sophisticated looking, now!!!

Incredible! How did you paint the railings?

I think what I'm most impressed with is how much you get done with two small children and working full-time outside the home .... You are amazing!

Wow!

Thanks, everyone! Having virtual friends who appreciate the changes gives me the energy to keep moving through the house after the kiddos hit the hay despite major grumbles from Mr Schlos who doesn't like the inconvenience factor.

For the railing, I didn't do anything special. I just cleaned the railing, dried it off and slapped up two coats of BM Aura matte in Black. I painted the columns after I finished the railing -- figured any issues around the edges would look like a slopped wall paint on the wrought iron instead of black paint on the walls. :) Not sure how hardy the Aura paint will be on the railing, but the surface feels very nice and powdery, and it's only a temporary fix until we replace the floors anyway, so I figured it didn't matter. If I really wanted it to last forever, I could add a few coats of poly, but then I would lose the very matte surface that I like so much so I'll just keep my paint handy for touching up any knicks. :)

I'm really pleased with how it is turning out. I'm now debating whether to try to paint the hideous HD special laminated mdf vanity the POs put into the guest bathroom (along with clear plastic towel racks and a clear plastic shelf that were trendy in the early 80s, plus a rustic country light fixture and towel hook??? Strange, very strange). I was thinking that there would be no way to fix that mistake without taking it out altogether, but after seeing rmkitchen's bureau, I thought it might be worth a try.

Love the changes - the house is really coming into it's own. You are on such a roll! That whole hate my house thread was just a ruse, - you had this all planned out ! ;-)

So talk to me about the Aura paint - I know you keep using it but tell me what you really like about it? Have you painted trim with it? Anything exterior? I've got 3 quarts my paint guy gave me to play around with but I haven't done much yet. I will say the little I've tried, the coverage is astounding but it takes a different touch than I'm used to.

What a difference -- that looks fantastic!

Several things I like about Aura paint:
(1) The coverage is outstanding. No matter the color, 2 coats and I'm done! In our previous house, we used a dark navy color on trim and one wall and it took six coats to get the right color consistency. The black went onto the railing as BLACK in one coat. Second coat was just to fill in the spots that didn't get covered the first time around. Amazing.
(2) Fast drying, so I can apply the second coat two hours after I did the first coat -- essential when I'm painting in the wee hours of the night and need to finish up, clean up and get to bed.
(3) The soft, powdery finish feels different than I have ever felt. I like the feel of the Aura better than the F&B I also tried, which wasn't as soft feeling.
(4) Easy touch-ups. Because of the way the color-fastness works with the first coat showing the true finished color, spots on the wall are easy to touch up without showing up a slightly different hue than the full wall. Essential when you have young artists in the house.

What I'm not loving quite as much as I had hoped: scrubbability. Although the paint doesn't come off when I scrubbed the wall in the dining room this morning, neither did it clean up as easily as I had been led to believe. Hoping this doesn't prove to be an issue as I attack the bathrooms.

I have not painted any trim, doors or woodwork yet, and I'm less than sure how the paint will work in the family room which has painted paneling and a somewhat shiny probably oil based paint on the walls. I think I will use a primer before I apply the Aura paints in there even though the Aura is supposed to be "self priming."

I will probably go for a low sheen on the woodwork (satin at most on the baseboards/trim/doors).

I love it. (Your front door is really great, too.)

I was so excited to post my pictures and say thanks to everyone, I forgot to include my follow up question:

With the black railing, what color should I do the door and trim? Keep in mind that the Lichfield Gray is (er, will be) the main color throughout the living areas of the house -- DR, living room, catwalk, entry, hallways and family room). Not sure if I should keep the trim and doors (we have pocket doors between the kitchen/dr and the dr/family room, as well as bedroom doors) on the white side, or should I look for something darker?

That looks so elegant and beautiful! Nice job. I love the grey color.

This turned out GREAT ! I too tink you were joshin....this aint no hovel ! c

Thanks, everyone. We still have a LONG way to go before this place is up to snuff, but it's true that paint makes a huge difference in how you feel about a place.

Wonderful railing color change and I love the litchfield; I would definitely go for the crispness of the white trim everywhere.

What a huge difference, it looks great!

It looks so much better with the new wall and railing colors~ very pulled-together and Contemporary. Great color choices!
Lynn

RE: Your follow up question, my vote is for white trim. I think it will really make your floors pop. It really is amazing how much of a different paint makes.

Love the new look! Maybe you could keep the trim white and just paint the door an accent color that you plan on using in the rest of the area. Just a thought.

Good luck! I remember painting my first home (many moons ago) late at night when the tikes were in bed.