Let There Be Light

It's amazing what a coat of paint can do for a room.  I knew I wanted to repaint all the walls in the house a crisp white, but I went back and forth on whether or not I wanted to paint over the black beams or leave them as is.  Andy and I also debated restaining the wood shiplap or painting it gray, or painting it the same color white as the rest of the walls. 

We went to Home Depot and bought a few sample stains to try out. 

After the stained dried, I really liked the walnut or I wanted everything white; Andy really wanted to paint the shiplap gray.  In the end we decided that staining each board would be a pain in the butt, Andy is not a fan of no color at all, so we compromised and went gray.  Here is a before pic:  

And here is almost the same view with the white walls and gray shiplap. (Please ignore the mess).

Here is another view.

FYI...we plan on replacing the yellow glass in the door with white frosted glass.  We really love how the paint opens up the space and makes the room feel light and airy.  We are keeping the original look of the shiplap and black beams in at least two of the bedrooms for now because black beams do look cool...these are the images that almost convinced me to keep them black throughout the entire house.

{Via}

{Via}

But I think we made the right call with white and gray in the living area.  What would you have done if you were me?

Find me on Facebook // Twitter // Pinterest // Instagram