We recently released a new collection of home goods in partnership with interior designer, Meta Coleman, and today she’s sharing a peek into her new main floor. Meta’s home is constantly evolving stylistically as she grows and I love seeing the process into how she brings it altogether. She gathers inspiration from her favorite artists and travels to create a truly one of a kind home.
Today she’s going into detail about the new colors in her house in partnership with Pure and Original Paint, her lime wash company of choice. Lime wash has the most lovely texture and it’s been something she’s been experimenting with the last couple of years. I’m excited to let you in on this technique with you! – Brittany
Meta Coleman’s new painted living room
I have wanted to paint my hallway a beautiful green for a couple of years now. With the help of Pure and Original Paint I finally made it a reality and I couldn’t be happier with the result. Follow along for the entire adventure and what sparked this desire.
Inspiration behind the design
A couple of years ago I found ridiculously low fares to Paris, France. My cousin lives just outside of Paris in the beautiful village of Garches. I impulsively decided to visit her and go to Maison et Objet. I have wanted to go for many many years and finally had a chance. My cousin, Maja (my daughter is named after her), and I had such a lovely time. She is one of those people who could wear a potato sack and it would look stunning on her, but she also has the most beautiful classic, simple and elegant taste in everything she does. Every morning we would spend an hour or more talking and catching up on our lives over a beautiful breakfast and Ricore. A new (to me) French barley drink I discovered through my cousin. Luckily I was able to find the drink online, so I can at least recreate a part of my time with her.
I took Maja with me to Maison et Objet and she patiently hung out with me as I gawked at everything and talked to practically everyone. I don’t let a silly thing like a language barrier get in my way, especially when it comes to meeting new people and seeing beautiful things.
On the last day of my week long visit, Maja took me to the beautiful house museum, Nissim de Camondo. Built by the banker Comte Moise de Camondo and named after his son Nissim, who died in WWI. The family met such a tragic end during WWII and there were no survivors. But they left a legacy of this beautiful, perfectly preserved French decorative arts home.
While touring the house I took many photographs and my cousin was particularly surprised with how many I took of the bathrooms. Can you blame me?!??
One of the rooms in the house was a room painted in the most beautiful green. After seeing that room I could not get the green out of my head.
I then kept seeing one beautiful room after another in green. Maybe the universe was telling me something?!?
The architect, Roberto Baciocchi’s home in Tuscany and his green, white and brown room is a particular favorite. I love how the colors are painted in large shapes. It must feel like you are inside a large abstract painting to be in this room.
Another green room that I love (her entire home is really quite colorful and spectacular) was this fun space by designer Michelle Halard.
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Deciding on Lime Wash
I had made up my mind that I was going to paint a room in my home green and decided that my hallway was the best place. Because my living room is already painted in a pink lime wash and I love the cloudy matte effect of the lime wash, I knew I wanted to continue with lime wash throughout the home.
I also wanted a fun way to separate the living room from the hallway, and the hallway to my office or kitchen. So, I decided to paint the thresholds that transitions from one room to the next in a vibrant yellow.
A couple of years ago I painted my front doors in a reverse diamond pattern. I thought it would be fun to paint the inside doors with a diamond. Tying in all the colors from the walls into the doors. A kind of yin and yang of doors if you will.
Here it is:
How to paint a lime wash wall
Pure and Original Paints was the obvious choice in paint and lime wash. They offer a large selection of types of paint: fresco lime paint (what I used on my hallway walls and threshold), Classico chalk paint, Marrakech mineral paint, Licetto matte washable paint, Traditional lacquer, and very durable Carazzo floor paint (what I used on my interior doors).
The finishes and color selection they have are so beautiful. As someone who is particularly particular about color I appreciate that the colors were already the perfect hue. I also fell in love with Carazzo paint. It is so smooth and matte and incredibly durable. Wiping stains is so easy and the paint doesn’t come off onto my rag as with some other paint brands.
Color selection
I chose Green Room for the hallway, which is a perfect true green. It looks a bit like a historical green that you would see in an English library. But it also feels very fresh and vibrant. Because I have really tall ceilings in the second floor hallway, and I wanted to cover so many walls in green, I decide to lighten the color up just a bit and mixed a 2 to 1 ratio. That is 2 parts green room to 1 part white lime wash. This turned out to be the PERFECT color of green. I am so so happy with it!
2 to 1 ratio of fresco lime wash in the Green room. 2 parts Green room to 1 part white lime wash
For the threshold transition colors I chose Ocre. It is a really nice deep mustard color. I also mixed the ratios of the Ocre lime wash with white, to get my color. The ratios were 1.5 to 1. So 1.5 parts Ocre to 1 part white. This lightened up the mustard and made it more yellow. But not too bright. It is a really fun, cheery color.
Tips on getting the right mix
The green room and Ocre are XD colors and they recommend not to mix too much water in the paint or else the paint will react to the water and you will get more of a white cloudy look in your color. Usually with lime wash when you mix a bit of water in the paint it paints on a little easier. For the second coat you dilute it a bit more to have a thinner coat and let the first coat come through. Because I couldn’t add too much water to the green and yellow paint, I decided to mix the water in the white and then mix the white with my green room and Ocre colors. This ended up working very well for me, but the lime paint is still a bit thicker than lime washes I’ve worked with in the past. Needless to say it was a very good arm workout:)
How to apply the lime wash
To apply the lime wash you must first prep your walls with a primer so the lime wash will adhere to the wall. Plain painted drywall walls must be primed first with a special primer that Pure and Original paint sells. It is called wall prim and you can get it in many different colors. I chose to paint it in white. You can paint it on with a roller brush and it goes on very quickly and easily. It goes on easier or as easy as regular paint.
You should let the primer dry over night before you paint your first coat of lime wash.
The first coat of lime wash doesn’t look too great. You can see the beginning of the color, but it looks pretty blotchy and dark and light in some areas. It’s not a good indication of how your walls will turn out. Keep going. I promise you’ll be happy with it once you finish the second coat. Let the first coat dry about 2-4 hours before applying the second coat.
Tips on getting the right texture
I usually like to paint the lime wash in a circular x pattern and I don’t want the pattern to be too uniform. I want it to look organic and imperfect The x pattern makes the lime wash look a bit like billowing clouds.
Lime wash dries really fast, so if you have really tall walls like I have you either have to work really fast or have a second person painting with you. You want to have wet corners when you’re painting. Meaning the corners should stay wet while you are painting the other sides of the wall. If you paint too many layers (or go over with paint too many times) in the corner, it will be darker than the other walls. If you know you won’t get to the walls that fast, another option is to tape off the corner in a vertical line going down the edge of the wall. Like the image below. This image also shows you what the first coat of lime wash looks like:
When to hire and when to do it yourself
I ended up having to tape off two of my walls and hire my painter to come and build a scaffolding and help me paint the remaining walls. I am a very independent person and it pains me a bit to have someone else do something I can do pretty well. Ha! But, there was no way I could reach the walls on my own, so I hired my painter, whom I’ve been working with for 15 years. Watching him on that scaffolding was pretty scary and I was worried at times that I was going to kill him. Thankfully I didn’t, and I taught him everything I know, hehe. He did a fantastic job painting the remaining two walls!
Here his is “surfing” on the scaffolding.
The second coat of lime wash
The second coat of lime wash is where all your hard work really pays off and you get to see it dry and turn into the most beautiful chalky, cloudy paint ever! Lime wash goes on several times darker and dries lighter. It is pretty fun to paint and watch dry. Probably the funnest paint I’ve ever watched dry. Although after painting most all the walls and those tall ceilings, I was pretty happy to be done and not paint for a looooong time.
Who lime wash is for (hint: not perfectionists)
One thing to take into consideration, If you are particularly and like things perfect, then lime wash is probably not for you. You are not supposed to wipe down or wash the walls. You can use the lime soap to “paint” away any stains or grease, but it is important to note that not all stains come off. I like to think that I’m adding patina to my house.
Painting doors
The next item to paint was my inside doors. I chose to paint my front and back double doors, bringing yellow and blue and a bit of pink, red and white colors onto the doors. Basically a rainbow of colors. Ha! Since my husband is an artist and I am a huge fan of Carl Larsson I do have plans to paint my children’s and our bedroom doors in colors as well as painted portraits (painting by my lucky husband Nick) with our portraits attached to them. That will be for another post that I will share with you very soon. 
Color selections for the door
Here are the colors I used for the doors. All painted in a matte Carazzo floor paint.
- Polar Blue
- Skin Powder
- Think Red
- White
- Ocre
Polar Blue: This is probably one of my favorite colors of blue I’ve ever seen. It is the perfect medium blue with a hint of grey in it. It’s almost a neutral and goes with every color. This is the color I used for the main part of the doors. Funny story: While corresponding back and forth with the lovely representative at Pure and Original Paint, I kept referring to the paint as Polar “Bear”. After calling the paint Polar Bear several times, she kindly corrected me and said the name was actually Polar Blue. Haha. I still picture a blue polar bear every time I think of this color. Hahaha!
After painting all the doors in the Polar Blue, I taped off and painted the inside trim on the doors in Think Red. A trick I learned with the Carazzo floor paint is to make sure you score the tape with a knife when you are removing the tape. The paint adheres so strongly to the tape that it will rip off the paint when removing it. If you score the edge of the lines of the tape, the tape comes off smooth with no problems. I also taped off and painted the white for the trim around the windows.
I then free hand painted the pink (a perfect dusty pink), white (in the center around the diamond shape) and the yellow (ocre mixed with white 1 to 2 ratio). I painted it free hand because I wanted the lines to not be too perfect and look handmade, but not homemade, if you know what I mean.
The final results
I am really happy with how the doors turned out. It was a fun way to incorporate the colors in my office, living room, threshold and trim into the doors. The doors are fun and cheery and with the Carazzo paint incredibly durable.
I am so so so happy with the final result of my hallway, threshold and doors!! It adds so much dimension and interest in my home. The green also adds warmth and makes me so happy every time I see it. I love it on its’ own or standing next to the yellow and pink. I feel like I was able to take a little bit of the Nissim de Camondo museum and my time with my cousin home with me.
It may have taken me two years to paint the hallway, but the end result made it all worth it.
You can find Pure and Original Paint here on their website as well as on Instagram.
Would you ever try lime wash? Would love to know!
This post was done in partnership with Pure and Original Paint.
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