Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Blush & Bashful

I know, in my heart of hearts, that spring is just around the corner. My sister is suffering from cabin fever in DC because the snow there is up to her hips. I get giddy with excitement when Nashville has a snow flurry. But regardless of where you are in the US, with the exception of Hawaii or southern California (you know who you are and I don't want to hear that 70 degrees and sunny crap), it's too cold to do anything that involves open windows.

Which means it is too cold to paint right now. But I can't wait! My hideous dining room and kitchen are really grating on my nerves and I can't wait to get rid of the 1990s dark red. I truly hate it.

So I'm going to post some paint swatches on here and you can shake your head at my taste level (okay, that's totally a Project Runway reference, and I swear the last time she said it on episode 4 of season 6 Heidi Klum was cracking herself up, it's such a cliche now), or you can comment on what you think is the best color.

Computer monitor settings very a lot, and these looked truer to color at work than they do at home, so I'll try to explain the colors a bit. (These are all Benjamin Moore colors....)

My Dining Room now:UGH! Do you see that little corner of red up there? Can you tell even from this little picture how terrible a paint job this was? I'm going to have to repaint my trim too, I can just feel it.But here's the full-on RED. This is from before I moved in when I was in cleaning mode, so just ignore the stuff on the counter. The dining room and kitchen are on the north side of the condo, which means they don't get a lot of light. It is really dark in here folks, and red does not do the light any favors. It just sucks it all up.

Sooooo... here's what I'm thinking. My mom and her partner's new house has a room painted in this:
Aganthus Green

I got a paint chip of that, but liked what was right above it better:
Tea Light

But now I've been going on some decorating blogs and I really like this too:
Gray Mist

If you look at those right next to each other they're all a green/gray with a tiny bit of blue to them. Gray Mist is a little grayer than Tea Light (that swatch is not true to color AT ALL). I think it might make stuff too dark. My sister took one look at these and said they should both be called "SNOWED IN" but she's just snow blind right now so we really can't trust anything she says.

I think whatever I go with in the kitchen and dining room will go in the upstairs bathroom as well. The flat beige/tan/blah paint in there is soaking up all of the steam from the shower and it looks really ghetto.

On to the tiny downstairs bathroom! I have this London Underground poster in there:


And so I want to paint it PURPLE. I'm thinking one of these:
Mulberry Wine


Amethyst Sky


Sleepy Hollow

All of these are a red-purple with some gray mixed it, and every time I look at them I think I need eyeshadow in these colors.

(okay, I have this one called Warm Black from Avon that's pretty much
these paint colors- at least I know it'll be flattering, right...?)


I have always liked little bathrooms painted in bold colors, and one of these will definitely make a statement.

Any opinions? Does anyone want to come to Nashville and help me prime and paint away the red? It's going to be a project.

2 comments:

Dayle said...

Nice pictures of your ugly walls! ....maybe you should consider clearing off your kitchen counters? That's what we do when snowed in... ;-)

kelley said...

what color is your living room, again?? I like the angus green (u know what I mean!!) and sleepy hollow. In fact, I may steal the sleepy hollow for my bedroom...

I do have primer, drop cloths, and related paint accessories, so I guess I'm a volunteer!