Playroom Gets a Brightening Up with Ahearn White

Are you ready for this transformation of a room? It is amazing what a little paint can do! We contemplated painting this room ever since we moved in. Given it was an all wood room, it almost felt wrong to paint over it but since there is only one small window in it, we needed to brighten it up.

After going through many iterations: Do we paint the whole room? Paint the bottom half and leave the the whole ceiling wood? Paint everything but the beams? We landed on painting everything and leaving the beams exposed. Now it seems so obvious!

The paint color

Another decision that I spent way too much time over-thinking. I have been a huge fan of Patrick Ahearn’s architectural work for years. Through his work, he’s come up with what he considers the perfect shade of white that works well in all light exposures and lends a warmth to the room.

Coined “Ahearn White”, it is a blend of 50% Linen White and 50% China White (both Benjamin Moore). Though it’s a custom color, your paint store should be able to mix the two together to create the color he uses in all his homes.

In terms of finish, since the room was all millwork, we opted for the Satin sheen using Benjamin Moore’s Advance line. Very happy with the result. It offers a subtle sheen that a matte wouldn’t; making the millwork pop even more!

You can see “Ahearn White” on the top right against “White Dove”. It almost looks beige / taupe. I’m so happy we went with it though otherwise the room would have been so stark compared to the warmth the “Ahearn White” brings in.

The finished product!

Before, you couldn’t even seen the beautiful millwork on the ceiling and the sides and now it just pops! Keeping the beams exposed too also adds depth to the room and brings the eye up!

Our goal is to have this room ready before baby #2 joins us in January. Currently need: