Paint & Trim Results

Here's the results of the paint and trim. The painters had a hard time finding an oil-based glaze that was dark enough for the look we were going for. After many hours at Home Depot, Sherwin Williams, and Utah, we finally came across an oil-based glaze that worked well.

The problem was that the latex-based glaze wasn't grabbing the texture the way we wanted it to, and the thicker they put it on, the more it covered up the underneath color. You really didn't see the "translucent" effect we were going for. The oil-based glaze was finally the answer because it was thin enough that it would coat the walls and grab the cracks of the texture, yet it was see-through enough to keep the home hues a little lighter.

We had one hiccup with this process with our drywall crew not sanding the texture down as well as they should have, so we have dark blotches here and there that look out of place and uneven, but there's nothing we can do about it at this stage of the game. When the texture isn't sanded well, (or isn't sanded at all) the wall stays rough to the touch, which gives more holes and little cracks for the glaze to go into, which in turn makes that patch or area much darker than the rest, and there's no way to fix it.

Here is a picture of the knotty alder trim after it has been stained. The painters then put three coats of lacker to give it a really neat shine. If you look closely, you can also see a bunch of white spots on these pieces of wood. Crazy thing is it's coming from the inside of the wood to the outside, and there's no way to get rid of it! We don't know if it's because it sat in our cold garage for too long, or what's causing the white residue to come out of the wood. Do any of you know what's causing this or how to get rid of it?

You can see the lacker shine in this picture on the wood trim around the door. It really turned out nice. We also guessed lucky on the door color... I had no idea what color the glaze would turn out to be, but thank goodness the doors matched!

Just a few more shots and angles for you on the job.

Sorry about the white spots on the pictures... not sure why my camera does that?

Family room.

We thought it would be neat to do half the stair in a "hardwood-floor" look and the other half carpeted since the stairs enter the foyer area on an angle. We used raw knotty alder and then had the painters stain and gloss it. The rest will be carpet.Corner of family room looking to downstairs/kitchen nook opening.Master bath looking into closet and bedroom openings.
Other side of Master bath - toilet room and shower.
Master tub.
View from entrance area as you look up.

The pictures don't do it justice, but we are both really happy with how it turned out. It really gives the home a warmth and richness we couldn't get with flat paint and texture.