Well I’m thrilled to report that our living room no longer looks like a little boy’s nursery! I admit to feeling pretty defeated when I realized just how wrong the color was. Repainting meant not only that the house would stay in a state of chaos for longer, or that I had hours and hours of work ahead of me, but also that I had to find a new color – and that this time I better get it right. My spirits were low and my confidence was shot, but I had to gird my loins and do the paint sample parade again. Fast forward through some real anxiety, many a text and photo sent to Mera, a cricked neck from all the ceiling edges, and two complete audio books plus innumerable podcasts, and it’s done! And… I love it!
The color is luminous, the room is much brighter, and it does not – in any light – read nursery. The name of the paint is – with no shortage of irony – Crystal Ball. If only I’d had one, I could have saved myself a lot of heartbreak. It’s from Miller Paint in their Evolution line (the same paint I used and loved in our dining room) and was actually a color I initially considered for the space before I succumbed to the expert advertising of Farrow & Ball. Its name may not evoke the soot-blackened walls of a cottage nestled in the English countryside, but it sure is pretty.
We’ve put a few things back into the room, but it’s mostly still a blank slate. It’s nice to take a little time to think about where art and furniture will go, and it feels wonderful to be liberated from the green paint that was in here – there’s so much more potential to bring color and pattern into the room now. This week I decided to spruce up the booze hutch, an antique British cabinet that Cameron and I bought at a thrift store soon after we moved in. As the name implies, we use it to store our hooch and glassware.
It’s a pretty piece, and its curves are a nice counterpoint to the mid-century modern furniture also in this room. There’s an awful lot of wood in this space though, and this seemed like a good opportunity to dress it up a bit. I am crazy for Rifle Paper Co.’s wallpapers and would love to paper my whole house in them, but for now I thought I’d do something smaller scale and a whole lot less expensive.
This Rifle Paper Co. gift wrap is $8.50 for three sheets (and it only took three to paper the hutch). There are lots of pretty patterns, but I couldn’t say no to the colors of this one. It might be a wee bit feminine, but I figure that it’s just a small space, and it will be partially obscured by booze which is totally gender neutral, so it’s okay. I didn’t want to permanently adhere the paper to the hutch so I decided to just use double-sided tape. This way, when its tenure as a backdrop for spirits is up, I can still use it for something else.
So there you have it! Almost two weeks of blood, sweat and painting-related angst plus one easy update distilled into one short post! I’ll show you more of the room (and no doubt solicit your opinions) as I start to move more things back in. Thanks for reading along and make sure to check in on Friday!