Paint. Who knew that when buying a home, the hardest part would be deciding what color should adorn the walls? I didn't. I thought it would be easy. I thought I knew my style [I do know that, I'm just afraid of commitment].
Last night I dreamt in color swatches. I saw hundreds of those color cards flashing through my head all night long. In order to remedy that, and to stop the madness of trying to decide, via computer screen, what colors I liked best, I made a list, and luckily, they were all Benjamin Moore colors, so I drove less than a mile to the nearest store with Benjamin Moore paints, and gathered color cards. And I came home with four samples. They are drying on white poster board that will be hanging throughout my house and stared at all day tomorrow (I know this house isn't the one I'm going to be painting, but I feel like I'll know).
So, after nearly 7 1/2 years of renting, all those years of imagining the extraordinarily vibrant colors I'd rather be staring at...I've had to come to terms with the fact that it's just not me. And I don't know why that was hard. You see, my mother-in-law has one of the cutest houses on the planet. That is not an exaggeration. It is full of color and tons of cute finds, all of which have a story either real or made up. There's always something new [that's really old and has a new life because of her], something interesting. With all of that, do you know what my very favorite room in her whole house is? It's not the living room with it's sunny yellow walls and red couch and green hutch. No, not that one. It isn't even the office with the fabulous turquoise desk...
No...
It's the guest bathroom. You should see it's gloriously white walls, and antiqued ivory cabinets with the sweet pops of color in the form of blue-ish-y turquoise-y vases and pots. I love that room. I love it so much. And with the recent addition of the black frame (with a picture of Cora in the sink), you could bury me in the bathtub [with lavendar bubbles] because I am in design heaven.
That's it. I admit it. I'm a black and white and greige with pops of color kind of girl. Greige - You know, is it grey? Is it beige? Who knows? So that's what my walls will be: Greige - with a little more grey than beige, please. And that's what I have spent hours pouring over. Slight variations of pretty much the same color.
There are four finalists (all Benjamin Moore):
The pictures don't tell the whole story, but they would all be paired with bright white trim. And we have a lot of it. 1921 Bungalow = Fabulous trim. My pops of color will be Blue-sy Turquoise-ish and Red. With some yellow in a few places as well, but greige, oh greige...how I love you.
Update: 1/26/2012 - Many have stumbled across this entry, and I just wanted to show you what our final paint decision was. We chose Halo by Benjamin Moore. Click here for pictures.
I feel like I can almost relate. I am already agonizing about what my "style" is and how I'm going to decorate/paint a home... and I don't even have one yet! P.S. I think you should post a photo tour of your mother in law's house- it sounds amazing :)
ReplyDeleteCant decide between the edgecomb or the revere...i am with you though on greige..its becoming my new fav! But I am a color girl...more of an eclectic color girl :) the house we are buying have tons of different colors in every room and eventually I will pick one color and paint the whole house that one color...maybe a different color for an accent wall..
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