Inspiration and Indecision

i find myself looking at pictures a lot and noticing just how nice the room looks, and thinking "that would look nice in my own house". i piece it together in my mind how i would walk into that room and feel all happy and relaxed, quite proud of myself and a bit smug with my awesome little room. and, even better, i can totally do that! i mean, it's just paint, a rug, the arrangement of the furniture.... how hard could it be?

(all from google image, btw)

then i look at my room and go completely blank.

(not how i want my room to look...)

i can't even come up with the most basic of concepts to try. a designer, i may have mentioned, i am not. apparently, it actually takes talent! and don't think i haven't tried! in college, i chose some rather unfortunate colors for our tiny little condo (i think my husband is still a little sore over the pepto pink bedroom, mint green and sunny yellow kitchen, and "sea venture" blue living room and hall). in my current house, the color i chose for my living room somehow changes color during different times of day, and is never a really pleasing color during any of them. it seems to have a pinkish/orange tint to it that can clash with my sage green couch and brown ottoman. and we won't discuss what my husband thinks of the pink paisley fabric i used on the bench he made me....

hey, don't judge. the first step is admitting you have a problem.

anyway, remember that art piece i made for the wall above my couch (here)? well, it turned out that the color blue i used for the background was much too light and bright for the space it was designed for. bummer. so i looked into all kinds of ways to try to fix it so that it would work without actually having to redo the darn thing. the best choice? repaint the wall. in fact, repaint all the walls in the living room. trust me, this really was the best option. if you doubt me, reread the second paragraph.

now, i wasn't so much worried about painting the room. i've painted before without incident. it's the easy part of decorating. but what color to choose? i was a wasteland for ideas. when i lack inspiration, i turn to my trusty friend, the internet. in this case, i turned to kreyv. if you look at this site, there is a whole series of posts dedicated to different colors and how they could work. check out the one for grey and see where i finally found my inspiration. that's me in words, people: subtle, sophisticated, and versatile! if you don't know me, just take my word for it. if you do...well, try not to laugh in front of the newbies. but, back on track, grey is the winner for my living room. a light grey, (a la:
to be exact. easy, peasy! except....

do you know how many light grays there are to choose from?! a bazillion! i counted! it's insane! i came home with 11 paint swatches to consider. ELEVEN, people. and i left at least twenty times that many looking lonely on the shelf as i walked away! why do we need that many choices?! it's dangerous, frankly, to put that many options in front of people who have no idea what they're doing! then someone suggested i consider light tan, as well. now, hold on. let's not get carried away and run all willy nilly through the store, okay? i don't have that kind of time! rein it in, people. just rein it in.

oh, this may take longer than i thought.

a couple months later....

so, a tip for other novices, like myself, who are not what we call "color confident" when it comes to these major decisions: ask friends for opinions. it's easy and they love to give them. here's the thing, though. only ask people who's tastes you admire. i asked one person who i think may be color blind. that opinion, obviously, does me no good. so, stick to a select group. then hit the store and grab some samples. then ask again. compare those samples that passed muster with the group with your furniture and curtains, etc. (unless it's all up for a change). they sell little sample cans of paint in some stores that you can get for a small area to test in your room, if you want to do that. it's a lot cheaper than a full can and less risky.

i made a deal with my husband. he only opposes me on most home improvement projects because he doesn't want to have to do it. so i told him he wouldn't have to do any of the painting (simply come home one day and it would be a different color), and he agreed to let me have my way with the living room. well, i have three small children to take care of all day, so painting a big room was not going to be an easy task. so i did what i could when i could. i started with the edging (which is my least favorite part and, i think, what takes so long when painting a room). i got one coat on while the kids slept...and then nothing else for days.


it looks blue, doesn't it? which was funny, because the paint in the can looked white. both of which are funny since the color i paid for was gray. i began to feel doubt (just so you know, people, doubt is a big part of my home improvement process).i stared at that edging for days and worried. then i did a second coat on the edging, just to see if that would help. it didn't. still blue-ish.

it sat even longer. we went out of town for a while and when we came back...still blue! what to do?! i had to make a decision pretty quick because we had company coming in a couple days. i either had to go ahead with the gray/blue, paint the edging back to the original color (which i had in the basement), or get a whole new color and start over.

have you ever heard the expression, "in for a penny, in for a pound"? well, i'd already paid my penny, so.... it was time to pound it out. with the help of a couple of friends, the paint went up.


it still looked rather blue to me, but the next problem was that i had misjudged the size of my room and needed more paint. so out i went. after treating my friends and kids to lunch and getting some more paint from lowes, i returned home to a gray living room! it was like magic. the paint dried to the color on the paint sample (as it was supposed to)! yes, it still needed another coat, but i could happily say that it was coming together!


i'm pretty happy with the result:



it looks pretty good with my new gallery wall, if i do say so myself. and i do. often.

so, bottom line is this: if you want to spruce up your room, paint is a really good option. just make sure to get the right advice when it comes to color. the color part, for me, got the juices flowing for the rest of the room (the room that i was completely blank about before). i never would have considered gray, to tell you the truth, if someone had not suggested it. don't be afraid to take advice that seems rather foreign to you. get the samples, test it out, and, if you think you might like it, go for it.

oh, and wait for it to dry before you panic. ;-)