pre pre painting

Picking a paint colour is awful. I don't know if I'm overthinking it, or what, but I cannot decide a colour. L is happy with any of them. We are getting a 'white' as our house can be quite dark. It doesn't have big windows, and the windows in the living area have wide verandahs around them, meaning less light makes it in. Our floors are also dark, which affects the colour.

I narrowed it down, and bought a few sample pots of paint from Bunnings. I've painted 2 coats of each colour onto the cardboard. We want a really pale wall colour, pure white trim and cornicing, and probably the ceiling in a lighter wall colour. Painting onto cardboard is good-you can move it around, check the colour in different rooms, and it's a nice big area of paint.

Hogs Bristle (I accidentally typed that as Hogs Breath) with White on White.

Antique White USA with White on White

I had thought that the White on White had to go. Downstairs it looks wrong, but upstairs it looked ok. We want a pure white, so that the wide skirtings and beautiful cornices stand out against the wall colour.

Antique White USA with White on White

Hogs Bristle 1/4 with White on White (the bottom 2 inches is the cardboard)

Antique White USA with White on White

While I was in Bunnings I also picked up a Lead paint test kit. $30 for two testers is a bit expensive, but basically confirmed our thoughts that we have lead paint in the under layers of paint. Means we will have to be a bit careful wen prep-ing our walls and trim-especially with sanding and removing chipping and flaking paint. And definitely NO heat treating!! (It was interesting some of the contestants on The Block were heat treating their windows to get the paint off...) Pink=lead. 

Pink

Very pink

The walls should be fine-although we have a bit of prep work to do, which means sanding back, we shouldn't remove enough paint to take it back to the lead. It's the trim where we have flaking, chipped paint.

I think we will probably go for Antique White USA. I think I have made my choice while writing this post-yay!!