Notable Things: We Picked A Stain Color! The 12 Most Useless College Degrees, Landscaping Do’s & Don’ts, How To Do High Contrast, & More!

We made a decision about the laundry room walls!! Ok let me catch you up to speed real quick. We installed rough sawn pine on the walls in the laundry room and smooth tongue and groove pine planks on the ceiling. The original plan was always to paint the walls and ceiling a creamy white to accentuate the texture of the wood. The painted wood grains on our bedroom ceiling are stunning and I wanted to replicate that.

But as soon as we finished installing all the wood, I had a thought that staining the wood might be even better. So I photoshopped the two options (paint or stain) and…well…long story short, we went back and forth with our decision 4-5 times with full conviction. After 30+ test stain attempts, we finally found a stain we love and that’s what we’re going to do!

We’ve landed on 1 coat of Simply White by Minwax and 1 coat of Antique Walnut by General Finishes. I mean look at all that texture!! THIS is why I wanted rough sawn pine as opposed to standard pine…the second you apply stain, the ridges and indents create to most beautiful texture that so closely resembles authentic old wood.

It’s actually darker than what we were initially aiming for, but after some thought we realized it’s as light as it could go before starting to compete with the other wood tones in our house. It’ll be a cozy room with so much character and we’re fully on board with this plan! As of right now, the plan is to start staining next week!

• Business Insider just revealed the 12 most useless college majors and Interior Design was ranked 10th! A certified career coach explained “You’re not going to get your return on investment…you’re better off going with a graphic-design degree.” See all 12 majors that made the list and why!

• This space convinced me to go for a dark stain in the laundry room! Look at that soft luster…and the leather wrapped handrail! 😱

• The prettiest Frame TV art for spring!

• Taking notes from these landscaping do’s and don’ts.

• THIS is how you do high contrast. Spoiler alert: you don’t pick the whitest whites and the darkest darks. You pair a warm white with a muddy black to soften the contrast.