The Loft ~ Creating a Cozy Family Room Space
A HUGE thanks to BEHR PAINT for sponsoring this post and this project! My favourable opinions of this paint are totally my own!
Well here it is folks, the grand finale of our new house painting project…the loft! It was definitely the most time consuming space and we did end up hiring some local guys to help us out because we do not have the materials or the expertise to paint a space such as this! They definitely shared some great tips and tricks with us so next time, who knows, maybe we will rent some scaffolding and give it a go!
When we first toured this house with our relator back in December, the loft was being used as the master suite. What would have been the 3rd bedroom had been made into a custom walk-in closet (if you have been following along, you will see we converted this closet back into a bedroom for our teenage son), and there is also a large bathroom on this level with a walk-in shower and double sinks (which may get a makeover this winter!). Here are the “before” photos from the real estate listing:
We moved into this house 9 weeks ago with only one of our three boys still at home so we knew this loft space would be better used as a tv/gaming/hangout room. Basically we wanted it to be used like our basement rec room was at our last house. Only now it’s upstairs instead of down.
When choosing the paint colour for this space I had to take into account our entryway that is at the bottom of the stairs. I also knew I wanted a darker colour because well, that’s what we love around here! I used both paint chips from my local Home Depot as well as the Behr Colour Studio to help pick the perfect colour which turned out to be BEHR MARQUEE® “Wet Cement” HDC-NT-23. It is the perfect mix of dark gray or dark green, depending on the lighting and time of day. We continued using the the Eggshell finish we have used in the rest of the house.
I decided to transition from our lighter main floor colour which is BEHR MARQUEE® “Off White” PPU-73 to this new “Wet Cement” colour around our front door and continue up the stairs into the loft. All I can say is we love it; it was definitely the best pick for this space. It has made this room cozy and warm which is exactly the vibe I was going for.
You can see in this photo where we transitioned from “Off White” to “Wet Cement” and carried it up the stairs and into the loft
Coming up the stairs we decided to leave the pony wall “Off White” for a couple of reasons. One, it keeps the stairway lighter, two, I was worried the pony wall, in a dark colour may get banged up with furniture and teenagers and life! With the lighter colour it would be less noticeable if this were to happen. One of my plans for fall is to wrap the top of this pony wall in pine, turn it into an actual ledge if you know what I mean. Also, as you can see, the two little nooks under the dormer windows have also been painted out in “Off White” for now. I’m planning on doing something fun in these nooks over the winter so for now, keeping them the lighter colour also makes the room feel more open.
The trim was freshened up with a coat of BEHR MARQUEE® Ultra Pure White PPUU18-06 in a Semi-Gloss finish. As for the bright white doors, stay tuned because they are being finished up later this week and will match their main floor counterparts in my favourite shade of black, BEHR MARQUEE® “Limousine Leather” MQ5-05.
We still have some work to do up here, we need new lighting (bye bye boob lights) and we most definitely need a couple of ceiling fans to keep it cool in the summer. We also plan to add a mantle to the fireplace this winter but for now our beloved old leather sofas are right at home in this newly painted room. This loft is such a cozy warm space and is definitely now being used as it was intended (even though it’s extremely hard to photograph)!
Once again, all it takes is a couple of gallons of paint to totally transform a space and make it your own.
Come back next week where I will take you on a house tour and show you how we have totally transformed our new home and made it our own with a few gallons of paint, in just nine weeks!
Michele
A HUGE thanks to BEHR PAINT for sponsoring this post and this project! My favourable opinions of this paint are totally my own!
