I finally came to terms with admitting that if I put off showing you guys the rooms in our house, I won’t blog in, like, a whole year. I blame all of those Pinterest-perfect images of immaculately curated, HGTV-worthy homes floating around blogosphere. I don’t know about you, but if my house were to ever look like that, it would probably self-combust under the pressure to maintain that appearance.
Much to my embarrassment, there are tons of moving boxes shoved into empty closets, because when you want to fake having it all together there’s nothing like sweeping things under the rug, amiright? I’m not sure if I’m going to do a home tour (unless you REALLY want to see it) but I need to be honest here: most of our effort (see also: money I’d rather put towards new furniture) has gone towards the exterior of the house. I promise to follow through with the curb appeal post, but we’ve experienced monsoons here in Florida and it’s put a damper on my photography attempts.
I recently ordered Elements of Style: Designing a Home & a Life by Erin Gates. Hands down the best purchase I’ve made for my house. I found a great deal on a gently used hardcover on Amazon and my nose has been stuck in it ever since. Hopefully my house will look all designer-like in no time. (Cue finger pointing and hysterical laughter.)
As luck would have it, Lowe’s has $0.99 paint samples through this weekend (through the 19th to be exact!). You better believe that I went out and bought almost every single paint sample in stock. I have zero shame. Even better, Lowe’s has most of the Benjamin Moore paint colors saved in their system so it saved me a trip to the nearest store (14 miles, to be exact).
As ridiculous as this looks, I actually felt RELIEF at there being less of that gross orange tan on the walls. Before you think I’m exaggerating, the lighting in these pictures doesn’t make it glow orange. It’s an effect that can be seen in the shadows and the changing light throughout the day and it leaves me cringing. This color is on every.single.wall of our house. #SerenityNow
Challenge #1: Choosing a paint color that helps brighten up a dark living room.
Challenge #2: Choosing a paint color that weathers the changing light of the day. Every single color I bought samples of looks completely different on the three walls I tested them on. The lighting and our furniture also makes them look completely different than the paint chips. #facepalm
Challenge #3: Choosing a paint color that doesn’t clash with the brown tile around our fireplace. I don’t know when I became brown-phobic (I blame blogosphere’s obsession with gray) but I also want to change the tile surround. Brian will probably hate me when I tell him.
I got samples of Benjamin Moore colors Edgecomb Gray, Winds Breath, Athena, Bilboa Mist, Ballet White, Elephant Tusk, Soft Chamois and the blogosphere favorite Revere Pewter. Of these, the biggest disappointment, sadly, was Revere Pewter. It was super dark grey, at least in this living room. We have two east-facing windows but it’s not enough light for many colors to shine.
If you’ve ever set out on a quest for the perfect neutral paint color you’ll probably empathize with how frustrating (and seemingly fruitless) this process may feel. Being the masochist that I am, I purchased even more paint samples than pictured above. My walls are starting to resemble a patched quilt.
Depending on the light in the room, my top two favorites in this line up are Winds Breath and Edgecomb Gray. Winds Breath is a little more of the perfect neutral I’ve been looking for in the morning light. However, as the day goes on it looks white…definitely not the look I’m going for. Edgecomb Gray doesn’t look gray at all in the room (which is good since I have warm tones throughout the adjoining kitchen) but it has a pinkish undertone that’s more pronounced at night. I won’t make my final decision until I paint 3×3 squares on the walls (because I suffer from ‘analysis paralysis’ according to Houzz).
In case you were wondering, these are the colors I’ve sampled. I think I’m going with Edgecomb Gray, and I’m still pretty bummed at how dark Revere Pewter looks in my house.
Which one would you pick?
P.S. If anyone has a better solution to the brown (cringe) napkins to protect the arm rests on our lovely buff-colored sofas I would love you forever!
UPDATE: See which color we chose by clicking HERE.
