Tuesday, July 18, 2006

A sea of green

So after putting the hutch in its new place and performing a massive purge on the living room/eating area, I have been thrilled with the new mojo in the room. So here's the new layout. I think the energy flows so much better (as does the traffic).

With the room put into order, attention then really became drawn to the lack of anything hanging on the walls and the fact that the room desperately needed a new coat of paint. I've been wanting to paint the room for the past couple of years, but never had the momentum to get it done (particularly with all the stuff we had crammed into the cozy space).

View from the kitchen doorway

View from the front door -- note the rug of inspiration

View from the eating area

At first, I wanted to paint the room a sunny yellow, but after acquiring a new beige couch last summer, a bright yellow just wasn't going to work without a slipcover, which I wasn't so keen on doing.

We've had a rug in the middle of the room for a long time now that I custom ordered from Home Despot not long after we first moved in. I've always loved the color combination in the rug (muted greens, peachy beige, deep navy, and blue-violet) and thought that a pale yellow would really work well with it. In lieu of the couch issue, I then decided that the lighter green in the rug would be the next best option. Blue in this room would be too cool. Couldn't do a beige due to the couch either. And, well, I happen to love green.

So a year or so ago, I went down to the Lowe's and picked up paint chips in several shades of green in an attempt to match the rug. Easier said than done, particularly when the rug needed a shampoo. So I put the chips aside not to be seen again until the recent purge. The momentum this week has been really trucking, so when I mentioned washing walls and buying paint to hubby on Saturday, and he didn't balk at the idea, I went directly to the store and got the goodies to do it. I loves me some painting.

Hubby's attempt at my stickbunnie

So after the kidlets went to bed Saturday night, hubby scrubbed the walls (we were using some pretty yucky stuff, and he didn't want me getting into it in my state -- thanks babe!) while I taped, and we had a finished coat of paint up by 3 am. By the time we reached the final wall, I was feeling a little overwhelmed with the green and not sure I made the right decision. "Oooh," says I. "It's really green. Not as sage as I thought it would be. Not sure I like it. Might be too dark in the hall." Hubby debated whether continuing was a good idea. I pressed on and decided that maybe sleeping on it was a good idea, particularly since I had two more cans of the green stuff that I couldn't return!

Next morning came a lot earlier than I was ready for, and I still thought it was too much green, so options of doing accent walls were brought in along with desperate calls to the artistic sister-in-law and mother-in-law. I bought a few 8 oz. cans of paint (why didn't I do that in the first place...duh.) in contrasting colors and two shades lighter of the green and painted them on the walls to see how they would look. After a little internal debate, I decided that the green was great and that accenting wouldn't be necessary. We just needed to get some accents up on the walls (like frames, shelves, curtains, etc.), and all would be well.

I've decided that I really like the green accented with chocolatey browns and muted blues, and my mother-in-law brought swatches of fabric for possible curtain/pillow use. Tonight at Target, I found placemats and tablecloths that will also likely work well. Once the whole thing is put together more pics will be shown (again...so sorry for you). In the meantime, here is a shot of the wall leading to the hallway (with some Tour de France coverage on the TV in the den...go Floyd!)


Tiger says it's not tabby colored, but he'll forgive us this time.

1 comment:

Andi said...

Pretty! My friend did a green color I think more sage like like you have on your blog color and it turned out really nice for her too. Her accent woods are oak and her decorations are pink in color. Green is said to be a calming color.