Costa Rica

Funny that I never travel out of the country for projects and in one month I have traveled to 2 different countries. This is our Costa Rica trip. Painting and redecorating a house in 5 days! Here's how it went:


An all day plane ride from Virginia to Liberia Costa Rica. We stayed in Tamarindo which is about a 45 minute ride from the airport through roads filled with pot holes, cows, ranchero cowboys, chickens, dogs, children and other cars driving where ever they wanted. Once we were at the house the beaches were gorgeous as well as the sunsets. Notice the huge pot holes in picture #1.










We had a time with the American painter boy who would not put the paint on the walls because he was on CR time. Whatever! This is Joe stressing over the painters.


This is Joe after the painters finally started or maybe the stress of it all drove him to have a drink!


Here are the before pictures of the house: yellow walls to matchy with the tiles, black ceiling made the rooms too dark and small, no artwork or focal points but great features like the pool, outside courtyards, glass, outdoor showers, and interesting windows!








Here are the after photos:
I found a great furniture store way out in the country down dirt roads. It took a while but well worth it. Check out the Ikat throws I used for the bed covering and the carving over the bed. In this room the walls were painting a softer cream. I would have liked to paint the trim but changing the black proved to be a real problem with time and the resources that were available to cover it up. There is only one hardware store and that's it no bondo, no regular paint brushes, no sealers, no black caulk, etc.



Blue is such a strong color in CR. The pool has this electric blue color so I wanted the kid's room to reflect this vivd color. I love the Moorish windows.


The next few pictures are the main rooms. I painted the ceilings my signature echo color that I had made up. The walls are a light gray and there are 2 accent walls in a darker taupe. I chose these colors to accent the concrete colored brackets that are in the window frames. I would have loved to paint the cabinets and the trim or at least the outer layer but there was not enough time.








All the showers open to the outside. Very tropical but there are bugs and lizards! I could hear the monkeys howling every night.


The pool is like a little tropical island. There's that blue color!


It was a definite challenge but well worth it. I hope I get to go back as a visitor next time and relax!