Bonny Scotland....and Our New Red Doors

The Part About Scotland:

At the mid-way point of our trip to the UK we arrived in Scotland.  We spent 2 nights in Glasgow and one in Edinburgh.  

I took a ton of pictures at Edinburgh Castle. 

While we took a few hours to explore it, I kept thinking  about the  fact that this castle must have been a total pain to build - there were huge rocks everywhere!  However, the early Scots over came this by using the rocks as part of the walls - built right in.

There were so many signs of chivalry throughout the castle.  Oh how I would have loved to have lived in this era...

Ancient stones under our feet, 750 year old cannons, a view to the "New Town" area of Edinburgh - and a couple of silly men who entertained and educated us about military gear  from the 1500's.

After leaving the castle we journeyed down the "Royal Mile" - the historic High Street in Edinburgh.  

Kevin and I even tried Haggis.  The flavour was meaty and  flavourful with many herbs and spices. I wouldn't order it in a restaurant, but it wasn't bad!

The Part of About Red Doors:

Take a look at these pictures.  Aren't these doors amazing?? 

Kevin and Layla at The Lettered Cottage recently created a Office/Guest Bedroom space with these gorgeous red accents. 

And these red doors figure prominently in the design of Sarah Richardson's country home Mudroom.  I have loved them since I saw them several years ago.  

Sarah Richardson Design

So when hubby and I decided to add a huge closet into our basement renovations, I jumped for joy when he agreed to RED DOORS!!

So while hubby spent hours framing, drywalling and adding trim, my painting skills went into turning plain white masonite doors into rich, red focal points.

I have been painting with red for years.  Our first home had a red dining room.  Currently my oldest son's bunkbeds (once brown and dingy) sport a rich crimson. Our kitchen bar stools have recently made the transition to red ( I'll show you those in the next few weeks!) 

Needless to say, I know how to work with RED.

And, baby, to make something red, you can't just paint it red.  

Especially if you are going from a pale shade like white.  

If you were to try to paint a white wall red by covering it with red paint only it would take you an eternity and many, many coats of paint.  The first coat would go on looking like a pink glaze, the second would turn your wall a funny fuchsia colour.  The third coat makes it a patchy raspberry and the fourth  looks......well you get the picture.  And maybe by the time you reach the 6th coat you might have red......if you are lucky!

Thankfully, way back, 10 years ago, when hubby and I were painting that dining room in our first home, a wise paint centre guy told me about dark grey primer.  Yep.  They just add black colour to your can of white primer.  Paint that on your pale items before you even THINK of RED and you'll be home free!

So, as usual, on went my coat of grey primer, then 2 quick coats of Red Awning by Behr and our doors were ready to be hung!

(By the way, this grey primer thing works well with any rich colour - orange, purple, blue, etc.)

TA-DA!

Don't they look great with my Camel (Behr) walls and my Hushed White (Behr) trim?

Here's a picture of my hard working hubby who spent weeks during his summer vacation working on finishing our basement.  We are SO CLOSE to finishing- just the dropped ceiling to go!

On go the nickel door pulls.  

I love how the red looks with our coffee-toned carpet.

We purchased a new sofa this week and I am slowly beginning to decorate the space.  I have many, many projects up my sleeves and I can't wait to show you them as I complete them.  We are hoping to have the whole room complete by Thanksgiving (which is at the beginning of October here in Canada).  Please be patient- I'll show the whole thing to you ASAP!!

Thanks for sticking with me through this long-winded post.  You truly are a wonderful bloggy-reader!!

Hugs to all,

Bronwyn