As you know, this room is my problem child. There are so many possibilities and I really like the nice qualities of it, but I’m stumped on how to handle it. I had to make a lot of decisions before I felt 65% sure I wanted to paint. i did it earlier. But before that, I had Misty try out some wall options in photoshop to see if it would help my decision-making process. I didn’t like any of the ideas I had, so here it is!
swivel chair (From the opening photo) | rug | | Sectional | | leather sofa | | candlestick | | chandelier | | black side table
This is the location of the room when we sent it to Misty (just realized now I should have done that from the first picture when the walls were bare – sorry Misty!). I could see it coming, but the walls felt unfinished, and I was worried about the wood jams and sashes, but there was no clear solution.
Three biggest challenges:
- paneling and trimwork. The siding is painted a semi-gloss very cool white and needs a 3 day paint job to repaint and the siding cannot be rolled up so you have to empty the room and spray it evenly sprayed). I stumbled back into this corner by accident and was much less flexible. This is doable, but expensive and highly disruptive. And what would you change it to? Even with the snap of my fingers, I had no idea what color I wanted.
- Drywall is so broken. As you can see, there are so many doorways, windows, etc. that painting the drywall dark can make the room feel choppy and busy. So I needed a lighter tone… nice, but choosing the right light tone proved to be much more difficult than the dark one, as it’s hard to get a feel for the tone from the samples. I have tried billions of samples.
- The paint color should complement the kitchen tile, not compete with it.
So I tried some options:
neutral wallpaper
I love sandberg raphael white wallpaper Just a few tones of white (something to match our cooler whites). However, I thought it might be the window tree popping too much for me and throwing everything off balance (this is still a work-in-progress theory).
Neutral wallpaper with white painted windows
Now painting those white oak windows isn’t ideal and you need to be 95% sure it’s the right decision. But seeing it photoshopped as well as the trim color is something I really like. For me, it makes the room much less busy and allows me to focus on the real moment: the ceiling, the fireplace, the big wooden door. (We do not paint). But once you draw it, you can’t go back. In this piece, Misty also made a mantel tree. I like it, but I don’t like it (I don’t know why).
light blue wallpaper and trim
This was meant to be a fabric wallpaper/texture and the trim would match perfectly.I used Ashley Stark fabric wallpaper to try and get this to work very well. It’s just a texture (looks like the pattern above). The final concern was the shade of the fabric. you can see here (Stones and pebbles) It may have been a little gray in this room.
neutral wall
This was a neutral that I thought I would have liked (to add warmth), but uh, no.
bold pink
I have a lot of blues and greens (and more greens are coming) so I thought it would look great with some pink on the walls. no!
pale pink
Not yet! Perfect for Easter!
pale pink and trim
But here the windows are painted the same pink color (which I still prefer over wood, if you look at the whole room).
What we drew – our place this week
I painted the drywall when I went for spring break Mantra SW 9631 by Sherwin–WilliamsIt was a last minute decision, but I felt 85% good about the sample. The drywall was only a few hundred bucks, took a day, and didn’t require spraying (I didn’t have to take down the room), so I said, “Let’s do it.” I came back and was very pleasantly surprised. It’s a happy very light blue light tone with some green in it. Are you 100% sure it works? no! But I’m moving forward with other elements that are happening. We are planning to buy this sofa and (maybe) put a cafe curtain on the deep threshold and a big curtain on the big door. So I am 70% happy with this color and I don’t know how it could be better. so it might be very helpful. FYI, I try everything I can before painting those windows. I think my biggest challenge, for all my choices, is that the room looks more formal than I’d like. Light is very traditional and can be considered formal. And all the trim work on the moldings and panels gives it this high-end feel. This isn’t a bad thing, but it also makes it look more formal. But overall, we love this muted color and can’t wait to show you the other angles (I’ll have to shoot the dining nook before I show you 🙂 )
It’s still going on, but what do you think?
means:
Wood flooring: oregon white oak Zena Flooring
windows and doors: white oak, aspen casement Sierra Pacific Windows
Atrium Color: smokey blue sherwin williams
wall color: extra white sherwin williams
*Photo provided by: Kaitlyn Green
