Those of the words of the guy at the paint store, and he’s right – we picked out striking colors we thought would fit our new living space. And thanks to our friends Teresa, Michael and Amanda, we were able to get some of the colors on our walls today. And oh man do they ever look amazing.

The colors all come from the California Paints “Historic Colors of America” palette – they’re all roughly from the period our house was built (1890), though I don’t know that any homes in 1890 used them quite this way.

Loft area

White? No, sorry, this is one of the many areas that is only primed. We ordered so much paint the store ran out of base – we’ll have to pick up the second round later in the week.

Front bedroom

This is the front bedroom, sporting a color called Plum Island. It’s going to need a second coat to even out, but already it adds a huge new dimension to the room.

Middle bedroom

This is the middle bedroom, using the color Hazelwood. The flash makes it look a little greyer than it actually is – it’s a bold forest green.

Bathroom

The bathroom color is called Curry. It’s another one that requires multiple coats for consistency.

Master bedroom

The master bedroom has a familiar color – Robin’s Egg is the paint we used when we repainted the living room, and we decided to keep it as a bedroom color. We think it’s even more striking in here because of the many large windows.

We have the week to finish painting and, if I’m lucky, to fix up and refinish the living room floor. The electrician has been installing outlets and switches, which is nearly finished.

What’s left: flooring, trim, bathroom fixtures, lighting fixtures and exterior painting. Unless I’m forgetting something, we’re nearly to the home stretch. No pun intended.