It's official. Our kitchen and sun porch have been lovingly slathered in two coats of Benjamin Moore's London Fog. This labor intensive process stretched from 7:30am Sunday morning until Thursday evening, largely due to the cracks and crevices presented by the brick walls in the sun porch. 

In honor of the new color, here's a little background music for you while reading this post, courtesy of my high-school-into-adulthood favorite band, +Live+, and lead singer crush, Ed Kowalczyk, as they perform "The Beauty of Gray." 

Over the last several days, we've transformed the space from a sunny yellow color to a more subdued shade that better complements the new Home Goods rug and Home Depot bamboo blinds. Here's a look at the before, featuring Benjamin Moore's Traditional Yellow.

And here we are under the London Fog.

Obviously we have a long way to go in terms of whipping the sun porch into shape, but the fresh coat of paint is a step in the right directly. On the long wall, we have plans to build a wine bar/storage unit, although Mel may not love being dethroned from the top of the wine fridge. 

We'll also be adding curtains, reworking the bamboo blinds, replacing the bench with new seating, and hanging curtains. We also need to address lighting in the room.

Already the rug and blinds are feeling more at home, and I'm coming out of my "I totally screwed up the sun porch" tizzy. Especially when I look back at this photo of the room, shortly after we moved in. What a difference.

So what do we think of the new color? Mel for one, promptly showed his enthusiasm by vomiting on the new rug. Thanks, Mel. (I'll spare you a photo of that sight.) I, on the other hand, love the color, but it's not at all what I thought it would be. When Lulu I first selected the shade, I thought I was pulling the taupe-y gray color out of the rug. Is it just me, or doesn't it look like a pretty good match?

But in reality, what we have on the walls is a much cooler, modern color. In fact, it looks like a lighter tone of the darker gray of the rug. (The color under Lulu's right paw, rather than the one under her left in the photo above.) 

I'm relieved it still works, it's just not what I expected. On the bright side, it also makes for a nice transition into the kitchen area, painted in the same shade.

My impatience typically causes me to blow past the whole paint samples on the walls phase, so I know this ultimately could have been prevented with a little more time (and money forked out for test paints). But I doubt I'll ever learn. Speaking of impatience, can I tell you how relieved I am to have the house put back together? Four days of the sight below was making me verge on a nervous breakdown.

Another side note in an effort to keep it real. Do you remember the dead worm farm we uncovered when painting the kitchen earlier this week? Well apparently we had a spider sanctuary situation happening in our sun porch, hidden behind one of the bamboo blinds. It's amazing how looking at a cleared out room on a ladder can give you a whole new perspective, for better or worse.

So how did we celebrate the completion of our painting project? Margaritas of course. All over conversation of replacing the counter tops this weekend. See Exhibit A (drunken napkin sketch with sweetener packet props from the bar resulting in blurry photos). Let the snowball effect begin.

So what do you think of the new color? Do the bamboo blinds and rug seem like keepers, now that they're more harmonious with the wall color? Have you ever started a "quick update" only for it to quickly morph into a complete overhaul of a room? Given our list of ideas, I can only imagine what we'll be reporting back on Monday.