Paint up to my eyeballs

Perhaps you've noticed I've been MIA.  Summer is officially underway in this house.  That means mornings by the pool, afternoons on the playground and days and nights trying to update our 1980's home.  

My hope this summer is to get all the "little" projects completed, like paint and tile, so that only the major, big-ticket items are left.  The problem is that just about everything needs painted and that takes up the most time.  

Last week, we got the walls done through most of the downstairs and yesterday, the last of the dark trim was painted downstairs.  I can't believe how just a little bit of white paint has made such a difference, but I'm in love.

Here is the before.  The wall color was a light tan and the upper trim in this room was dark, along with the beam.

And here is our after.  It's hard to get a true picture of the new paint color, but it is sort of a vanilla color with a light tint of yellow.  It runs through the downstairs, except for the kitchen.  Of course, all the upper wood work is now white and I can't believe how much it has updated the house.

Of course now, I'm itching to get that old gold fan out of here!!  But that can wait for another day.

The upstairs is also being tackled and I have a good friend who's been helping us on all the dark trim.  So pictures to come of all that soon.  My only other hang-up in here is the fireplace.  My friend is in favor of painting the mantle white and the cover black.  What do you think?