Our closing is in two days, so with all the craziness of trying to organize ourselves for the move we haven’t been doing too much that would be blog-worthy. I have, however, been thinking about the one project that I’m allowing myself to do immediately: Painting the foyer. (And yes, I pronounce it “foy-yay.” Deal.)

Our lovely new house has a dirty secret, but it isn’t much of a secret because it is emblazoned across its face. Although it was built around 1900, somebody took it upon himself to close in the porch in the ’50s and create a family room and foyer. Actually, we love that it has a family room and foyer, but they were done with zero respect for the house’s architecture. I’m sure the owners thought that they were making it really spiffy by adding flagstone and glass block around the front door. *dies*

But we’ll deal with that eventually. What we’re (I’m) dealing with first is the horrid knotty pine which cover the walls of the foyer. I’m not sure if this happened when they closed in the porch or a decade or so later. But boy, is it hideous.

Do you see how wrong this is?

So wrong.

The good news is that I think it will look really nice painted. The trim is already white in there, and I love me some white trim. (And I won’t paint over the nice original wood trim, don’t you worry.)

Pottery Barn always has fine examples of entryways with painted paneling, and being that I’m a very visual person, I was excited to find the following photo which is along the lines of what I envision.

Ahhh, pretty. I’m loving that very light robin’s egg blue with the white trim.

So I need to get my hands on some Zinsser BIN primer which is what has been recommended to me for painting over knotty pine. (The shellac base is what stops the pine sap from seeping through — a most awful thought.) And then I’m off to see my old friend Benjamin Moore to see what color might work. (Pottery Barn uses BM colors, but the paint that they say they are using here really doesn’t look like it does in the photo. I believe they say it is Wedgewood Gray.)