Live Colorfully

Do you like my post title? Do you know where it's from? I'll give you a hint: I ripped it off from one of my favorite designers.

Speaking of designers, today I wanted to talk about some interior design. But what in the world could I be talking about if the title of this post is "live colorfully?" Paint. My husband and I painted all weekend, and I've got the aching biceps to prove it!

When we first moved in, we hired painters to paint our red kitchen a dark gray, to paint our pink guest room a pool blue, and to paint our yellow master bedroom a light gray (photos of those last two rooms coming soon). Those rooms were kind of tricky to paint (and we hadn't purchased a ladder yet), so I'm glad we paid to have them done. Most of the house was fortunately painted in colors we would have chosen, but there were still a couple more rooms that we wanted to redesign. Now that we had been in for a couple of months (and had purchased a ladder), we decided to go the DIY route and paint these rooms ourselves.

Upon entering our home, the first room on the left is a large room that the previous owners used as a playroom. We hadn't used it as anything yet. It's just a giant, green, empty room.

 After much brainstorming (about how my husband could have a lawyer office that smelled of rich mahogany) and much dreaming (about how I could play Belle in a library with a sliding ladder), we decided to turn this room into a study. In order to create this room in a way that lives up to the standards we imagined, we'll probably have to do it little by little over the course of a year or two. We're talking about building shelving, shopping for a couple of leather chairs, and updating my husband's desk set. For now, we decided to start this project with a change from the serene green to a more vibrant garnet.

The other room we wanted to paint was my beige craft room in the basement. I wanted a room that was whimsical and inspiring. We decided to paint three of the walls with the same pool blue paint that we used in the guest room.

For the fourth wall, I had a different plan. What's more whimsical and inspiring than an entire wall of chalkboard?!

These two rooms took two days, on and off, to paint ourselves. It was nice to have someone else paint for us, but doing it ourselves was so much more gratifying. We were incredibly proud of ourselves, and we had fun in the process! I mean, any serious project demands some not-so-serious moments:

Intense tape ball is intense. And look! I'm making an intense face.

Chelsea was exhausted from not helping.

Stay tuned! More on my craft room later.