Design

We Sought Out Home Depot's Advise and Behr Paints For Our Color Pallet

With lots of painting to do and lots of surfaces to cover we sought out the help of the paint experts at Home Depot. They took the time to understand the surfaces we were covering as well as the look and style we wanted. There recommendation? Behr paints.

Behr had all of the colors, textures and coverage options we were looking for at a reasonable price. Together,they helped us put together a color pallet for Sylvia using the full array of Behr textures and colors.

The kitchen was going country chic. We were using faux tin panels for the back splash and ceiling and wanted some bright yet traditional colors to enhance the natural light that poured through the windows.

We found a green/gray we liked in Ralph Lauren's collection of "Suede". Home Depot was able to take that paint chip and color match it into a Behr Marquee paint that would become the base wall color.

With dark chocolate brown base cabinets and dark granite counter tops the cupboards had to "POP" We selected a simi gloss in Behr Fundamentals called Honey Tea.. it's a rich mustard yellow that pops against the darker green walls.

Behr custom matched green on the left and Behr Fundamentals Honey Tea on the right.

Since we had already decided to treat the expando as a separate room ( more on that later) we needed to complement the totally "country" look of that in the connected living room. There was lots of dark chocolate brown trim in the room that we would keep plus the need to accent one wall in a color that would both connect with the "country" expando and  kitchen.

   Home Depot found the perfect combination:

This is Meditation Time  a cool gray toned green that blends perfectly with the darker green from the kitchen .

For the rest of the room including the ceiling we chose Behr Home Decorators Collection Warm Marshmallow. This image doesn't do it justice as it is a much warmer cream.

For the trim we stayed with the creamy earth tones and chose another color from the Behr Home Decorators Collection this time selecting Merino Wool. A warm toned natural beige .

The hallway in Sylvia is twenty eight feet long so it needed to stay light and bright. We had already decided to use lightweight plywood on the bottom half of the exterior wall and add a chair rail molding and a light gray white brick motif. So the color had to be equally light and bright. For that we selected  Behr Home Decorators Collection Weathered White.

This color worked well with the choices I had made for my craft room. It would be the perfect ceiling and trim paint as well as coordinate with the rich style we had selected for the bathroom.

For my craft room I wanted WOW. Bright, happy colors that would make the smaller room a unique spot. It only took one look at the Behr Marquee Odyssey Collection to choose my "style"

This fabulous blue is Adonis and it will be on the exterior wall and on the hallway wall. 

Because this room used to have a closet with under storage there is a alcove and for that wall I choose this popping, hopping green called Pistachio. It will make the entire room just pop. The largest wall, trim and ceiling will be painted in our hallway color of  Weathered White. On that wall we plan to use stencils to do various color Zinnias.. 

We're not going to reveal the Expando, Master Bedroom or Bath decor just yet. But stay tuned. The painting is about to begin!!

Putting Back The Original Design vs. Doing Something New

Holly Park stopped manufacturing mobile homes in the early 2000's . Based in Middlebury, Indiana the company first started making homes in 1964. With a network of over 20 builders the company produced an average of 500 homes a year.

Best known for the manufacture of high quality single wide homes, some with Expando living rooms the company branched out into double-wides and modular homes in the late 1990's and construction quality vs cost forced them to close. In their heyday they best served the middle to upper end home buyer.

By 1974 the company was producing a Cadillac single wide home with an expanded living room.
It took some serious research on the Internet to come up with pictures of what the interior of Sylvia would have looked like when she was new. But we did find a few.

 The Kitchen 

With four large windows the  front kitchen is bright and airy. We note the mirrored wall in what appears to be a hutch. None of this remains in Sylvia today.. but we sure enjoy looking at these pictures.

 The Master Bedroom

At the opposite end of the home is the master bedroom. Again there are three windows across the end of the home and one on each side . There's a large closet with bi fold doors. Built in storage under the windows must have been nice.  All of the built ins have been long since been removed but the master bedroom is just as bright and airy today as it's kitchen counterpart.

The Second Bedroom

The second smaller bedroom is the first room down the hall from the living room. A hallway window brightens the hallway and adds light to this room if the door is open. The original had a built in nook closet with under storage drawers and lots of shelves. Pictured here with a twin bed the room is large enough for a full size bed. In Sylvia the closet doors and under drawers have been removed as have the shelves. This room will become my craft room where I'll sew and make paper crafts I sell.

The Bathroom

The bathroom in the original was loaded with wood cabinets. In some homes it also served as a laundry room, but in Sylvia a separate room for the washer and dryer is just down the hall. The wood cabinets have been painted but are original. One unique discovery we made, the bottom cabinet closest to the shower is actually a pull out towel hamper. This home has a tub/shower combination , but today Sylvia has only a large shower without the doors.

We have been unable to find pictures of the 13' by 7' expando that makes Sylvia's living room not only huge in space but bright and airy with two large windows  on each side and a raised roof with sky lights. The one picture we found of the living room is a bit dark and as you can see there are no 

widows showing.

The interior of Sylvia has been made considerable brighter by the addition of white paneling through out the home for which we are thankful. However with all the character and charm of an older Cadillac edition home we've decided to keep what is left of the original and create our own unique "County Shabby Chic" home.... It's a girl thing !