This is what I see when I look into my living room.
And I think I want to change it.
Let me explain.
When we built this house 5 years ago I had been saving pictures from magazines for months and months as inspiration for each room in the house. You know, old school Pinterest. At that time it was all about color, color, color and I was determined not to shy away from color by painting every room in the house off-white. I painstakingly chose coordinating color palettes for each room making sure that each room would flow into the next.
Downstairs I favored warm colors with a definite french influence. However, after 5 years of choosing items to fill my home according to this color palette I now feel like it's too heavy. I feel the need to lighten and brighten. But how to do it on a budget?
Some things will have to remain like furniture and window treatments which leaves me with one choice. Paint. As my old guru Christopher Lowell will tell you, the cheapest way to make the most dramatic difference is through paint. So why am I hesitating? Because it's a big job. A really big job. And it's one that I will undertake all by my little lonesome. You see, when Georgia Boy and I got married he knew how much I liked to paint rooms and he promised to be their for moral support only.
I know that if I end up hating my lighten and brighten project I can always re-paint it but thinking about painting these rooms twice makes me want to lie down on the floor until the feeling passes.
See, the problem is that not only will I have to paint the living room but I'll also need to paint the kitchen.
I thought about staging this picture but then I just decided to keep it real.
I'm also planning on painting my kitchen island and the armoire in the living room. Trying to figure out which paint colors to use and how to make it all work together without changing any furniture or fabrics is enough to make a girl go straight to bed with a diet coke and dark chocolate.
I've got my collection of paint chips ready to go and I'm almost ready to pull the trigger. Almost.
First let me go sit down with a diet coke and think it over again.