Please tell us the charcoal paint color!

I second the request for the charcoal paint color. :)

Thank you for this. My husband is dead set against gray ("battleship gray" as he calls it) because he considers it "cold and institutional". I think the foyer is a perfect example of how gray can be warmed up with accessories. Thank you. :)

What a nice transformation. I like that you left the trim the natural wood color instead of painting it white, as many AT'ers are wont to do (myself included). It looks great with the charcoal walls in the living room. Also, good job on the bathroom. What a sense of accomplishment, eh? Thanks for sharing. :)

Bri, I just don't understand the bathroom curtain. Curtains are either short OR floor length (touching the floor.) There's no middle ground. You've decided to place this long curtain over your tiny bathroom window but it looks odd because it falls short (literally and figuratively.) It's like wearing trousers that are too short.
Also, why are you blocking out the only bit of natural light in that room?

I rarely look at every single photo in a house tour, but I did yours. You have a really lovely home - congrats on a job well done.

I particularly like the way you extended the wall color onto the ceiling in the living room - that looks like it might have been an awkward situation, but you solved it beautifully.

I'll add my request for the charcoal paint color - my past experiences with gray paint have not been good - they've all ended up looking blue, but that looks like a true gray - at least in the photos.

Again, well done!!

i had a big "ah-ha" moment when i saw that you put mirrors on the back of the card file cabinet. perfect!

Yeah, I really don't like the bathroom curtain. It was actually fine the way it used to be. I'm not sure why there was a need to replace it.

I love the rugs. Please give a source for those? They're amazing.

This is not a before and after - those are pictures of the house she bought as it had been furnished by the previous owners. Of course the place looks different with the her furnishings, fixtures, and some paint!

Call it what it is, a house tour, please don't try to dupe readers into thinking this is some before and after makeover. Or are we now calling it a dramatic before and after makeover when we move into a new place and bring our belongings to furnish it?

/RANT

@cherrybomb,

As her biggest embarrassment, Bri mentions the hanging lamp, which can be seen in both the before and after photos.

@cherrybomb - I don't see your point, actually. The bathroom was renovated, the kitchen was renovated, and the entire house was transformed. The first photo shows a place that is stuffy and old, and the second shows a really great transformation. Most of the house stayed the same, but seeing how it was before gives you a really good idea of how dramatically different a house can look after a different personality moves into it.

Rugs, rugs, rugs. Where, where, where? Please, do tell - the living room and entry way.

Oh great! I loved the living room transformation from before, so this is icing on the cake.

The living room is still my fave, but the hallway is a close 2nd.

I'm not a fan of globes. To me, they usually look more like a flashy design trend than a treasure that naturally belongs in the room. But the globe in #11 looks lovely and right at home, with the small glass globes beside it and the pink blooms framing the "ocean."

Here's another request for the rugs source.

@oceandreamer - those are coved ceilings. If they're anything like mine, they are plaster walls that curve into the ceiling with a small 1/2" lip where the "wall" stops and the ceiling starts...about a foot in from where a traditional wall and ceiling would meet at a 90 degree angle.

One more request for the gray color and one more cheers for a job well done. If only my (similar) house looked so good!

I love love love the living room!

@ShannonTaylor - I don't know if it's really easy to judge one way or the other. I love globes and I'd easily have a dozen if we had room. The only one we have is from from my grandma's house. So there's meaning behind it.

@cherrybomb - They changed more than fixtures, furniture, and paint.. And I fail to see how who owned / furnished the 'before' makes any difference to the fact that it's a makeover or to the value that it brings to AT readers as an example of great design decisions.

Really nice pieces, but the arrangement seems a little odd, no? I was a little confused by the placement of the large card catelogue in the living room and the chandelier in the bedroom. The rug in the living room is to die for, though.

and yet another request for the grey- super!!!

Forgive me if I am wrong, but is that carpet in the bathroom????

I'm kind of relieved to know the before photos are of the previous owners things - I'd had the thought of, "Wonder how long it took to save (or how far into debt did they go) to be able to replace so much of the furnishings??" :-)

Gray paint color please! It is really pretty.

Okay, in case the OP hasn't gotten the message, I will add to the collective request for the paint color! I joined AT today (long time reader, first time poster) just to ask, so please please pretty please?!??

Also, this one is open to all of you great design minds - how does a gray color like this look at night? I love the way this tone looks in a well-lit room, but does it turn dark and depressing when the sun goes down?

Oooo, I have a Persian rug with a lot of red in it. That charcoal looks great; I may have to copy that.

Well, my LR is painted pale grey, and it looks great at night. Unfortunately, in the daylight, it looks lavender. Drives me nuts.

I never thought I'd be a fan of grey paint, and certainly not dark grey, but this is gorgeous.

But what I really want to know is where she got the silver skull scrubby holder! That is awesome!

@irry
It misrepresents that the owner had a paradigm shift about how she wanted her space to look; it's still interesting to see what "the same space" (I remember one post where the poster lived in a 2-person space and how the other bedroom progressed through her 3 roommates) looked like, but it's not "meaningful" in the way real before-and-afters are. Also, I hope the relationship Bri has with the previous owners is at a level where the AT blogger can say mean things about their stuff. It's not like they signed up to have their house featured (and criticized) on AT, after all....

I still think the people sitting on the gray couch need someplace to put their drinks, and that the sitting areas in the room not speaking to each other is a bit... odd. I get the idea, but they're so close to each other I think the execution is iffy.

@pixiedust
Mine is the same, but it turns light blue in the sun.

Awesome, love seeing a Colorado home featured (I'm in Boulder)!

Please add me to the growing chorus of commenters wanting to know the name of that gray paint!

Like the others, I'd like to know the charcoal grey paint's name and where you got it. I think showing the before/after from one owner to the new owner is a great perspective! It shows how style can so deeply impact a space. Bri's shown how her tweaks have given cohesion to an outdated and disjointed mishmash! So what if she didn't buy everything brand new?

When I post my before/after pics of our empty new construction house and then with our stuff in it (new and old), I hope the comments are kinder. Great job Bri!!!

Kirstin, I'll bet they won't be kinder. In the comedic words of Rob Paravonian, "There's always on a-hole on the internet" ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpWpdcR63ms ). But, don't let that stop you! For every snark-y remark, there's at least 10 positive ones and lots of *constructive* criticism (which can be really helpful if you take it the right way :) ). I hope you go for it! :)

Here's my Wild @ss Guess about the paint color: Sherman William's Serious Gray (SW6256) or Gibraltar (SW6257).

Hi guys! Thanks for the nice comments. I appreciate it.

To start off, the color is from Martha Stewart Living - the color is called "seal". It looks a bit darker when you get it on the walls but it dries just fine. And it is a bit dark at night but I've got tons of lamps around so I think the overall affect just ends up being cozy.

As for the rugs - the big persian rug came from TJ Maxx (I looked for one for almost a year!) and the one in the entryway I actually picked up when I was in Morocco years ago. It's an antique Berber design. The guy in the shop just knew that I would love it forever by the look in my eye I guess.

I know the room arrangement seems strange, and it's hard to tell from these pictures, but the shop shelves in the middle of the room actually protrude off of a part of the wall that sticks out. It was really hard to find a furniture arrangement in the room that worked and the card catalog just fit. It's not my ideal situation but I was making the best with what I had!

OMG! Awesome! I love love love Boulder~

LOVE the living room. Wish she had kept to the saturated colors in the other rooms. The bedroom and dining room seem sort of weak. I would love to see an Abigail Ahern-type palette throughout...more dark gray, fuchsia and purples. I think Bri would know exactly how to do it and it would be gorgeous!

From granny to great!

I also love the grey & the floors. I'm not a fan of the skull look, but really like the one in your kitchen for holding sponges. Very nice...

While trying not to be rude, I agree that the title of this piece is grossly misleading. "Before & After" implies changes someone made to a room they decorated both before and after. It does not apply to rooms decorated by different people or to a room decorated for the first time (as in new construction). And it is very tacky to publish the interior of someone's home without their permission, especially when you publish it as the "bad" styling. Shame on everyone involved in deciding to do that.

Before and after means.....well.....BEFORE and AFTER. No one said what it was before, or what it was after. To me, the effect is the same. Seeing a certain space one way (BEFORE it was changed, and then another (AFTER it's been changed).

The more drastic the the better; and what can be more drastic than two entirely different perspectives on on something?

Question to the "experts": exactly how much time should pass before a "genuine" before and after can occur. Because we know that as soon as folks buy houses they change EVERYTHING done by the previous owner. Actually, most people live with the prior owner's aesthetics for quite some time before they are able to change it.

If I move into a house built in the 1960's that has the original cabinets, counter tops, blue and yellow tile in the bathroom, light switch plates, and paint, then I live in it for 2 years the way the previous owners had it (save furnishings), then I renovate it one day, would it be a before and after then? Because, technically I didn't lay the tile (my mom was in grade school).

If I move into a place and live there for 3 months and replace the flooring underneath a rug I got from target, will that satisfy your requirements for a before and after? I mean, it was MY rug after all.

It's fine to have an opinion, but just because your perceive something as such does not mean other perceptions are incorrect.

I don't see a big issue with using a previous owner's "before" shots, as long as there are not tasteless comments going along with them ("look at this horrific light fixture! and the pinch-pleat drapes! who could be so tacky?"). Chances are the "before" shots came from the realtor's website, so they are already in the public domain. There was just a post the other day about someone ripping out a hideously carpeted stairway with a spindly pass-through thing--that "before" was done by other people too. Same with all the B/A furniture shots where the poster repainted an old cabinet or reupholstered a chair. What's the difference?

Great job - the after is SO much brighter and great on the eyes. I'm sure it feels that way too when you are actually using the space. The paint color alone did wonders.

Oh man, is it the same person living here?! This seriously went from smelly Grandma's house to hip, livable space.

what are the dimensions of the living room out of curiosity?

ahahaha, I have the same skull dish scrubber, only in purple! I used the scrubber to shreds, and now I use the skull as a soap dish in my bathroom -- sort of a play on washing someone's mouth out with soap.

The bathroom redo is awesome, I am currently considering a bathroom redo that incorporates beadboard wainscotting, but don't want it to look too stuffy or cottage-y and you did a great job acieveing a balance. Is the floor in the bathroom cork or tile?

Where is the skull from? I love it.

If you are looking for a charcoal-y paint, also check out Farrow & Ball's Down Pipe. It seems every design mag on the planet has a bedroom or hall with this color lately. I don't know that I'd do it in a living room, but search for pics of Abigail Ahern's living room - it looks great there.

another request for that charcoaly gray paint color, please!

also, in this era of home staging & the like, I think this really is a before & after. most people can't see the potential in a location unless it is set up in their own style. this lady obviously saw past the outdated furniture, wallpaper, etc and instead saw what she could do to make it what she wanted it to be. and she did a fantastic job!

also - that red rug is astounding. love it! and also curious abt the big wooden card catalog- like piece that created the seating nook in the living room. was it inherited or found? either way, it's amazing.

Bri, I saw you responded up above, but if you get back to this, could you let me know the source on the kitchen countertops? Thanks.

scratch that, I see they are in both the before and after. oops.

@LMM - it's actually just the cheap vinyl floor tiles. If you can find the right one they don't look too terrible. I want to do slate eventually but I'll end up doing that when I re-tile the shower stall. Didn't seem worth the expense at the moment.

@Calamity - wish I could tell you, but it was a birthday present from my mom!

@leith - it's Martha Stewart Living, and the color is "seal".

@ohiogirl - it's actually an antique that I bought/inherited. It's an old shop counter with drawers in the front and a mirrored back that I think used to hold some shelves.

Bri, thanks for the color info. :)

I think you did a great job -- and to those AT readers who are not familiar with Colorado, I lived there for 20 years, and found it a lot more challenging to find interesting and inexpensive options for home furnishing (no IKEA, for starters!). The look Bri achieved is wonderfully personal, original, artistic and liveable. I'm also a fan of charcoal gray - have it in my kitchen - and love how it looks in your place with the red rugs, especially. Love all the original artwork.

thanks for agreeing to do the Tour !!! =)=)

Absolutely love love what you did in the living room and entry. The dark gray along with the wood floors and pops of color have given me something to chew on. I'm seeing gray in a whole new way. Fabulous!

FYI, here is a nice red rug for those looking:

http://tinyurl.com/4jbpq2y