Monday, July 30, 2012

Putting a Little Color in my House

Hey, all!

I FINALLY had my house painted last week. The kitchen, living room, and dining room were all done. Now, I have what you call an "open concept" kind of downstairs so all the rooms were one color. I believe it was "Champagne Bubbles" from Sherwin Williams. Standard stuff.
Nice, but after 12 years I decided I needed some color in my life and chose THREE different colors.

I know. I'm living on the edge.

In the living room I went GREEN. Neutral, but it's a color. I LOVE how it turned out. Very warm and relaxing.

For the kitchen, I went a blue/green. I have little blue and aqua specks in my granite so I wanted to play that up. Plus I wanted to add a little warmth there because I have so much sunlight. It looks very beachy and pretty now.

For the dining room, I wanted a rose color but am changing it to a more neutral beige. Long story...

Here's how it turned out:
The living room...

"BEFORE" (I was moving stuff out of the room when I decided to take a picture)

"AFTER" I chose "Weeping Willow" from Olympic




Now for my kitchen...
"BEFORE"

"AFTER" with "Misty Surf" by Olympic


The dining room I kind of flubbed. :(

I wanted a rose brown but ended up with something a little too pink. So when I walk in my house and see blue from the kitchen and pink from the dining room, I feel as if I'm in a nursery. Not good. We're hoping to correct that this week...

Once that's done, I just need new curtains in the kitchen and dining room and I want to redo the fireplace in my living room.
(See the blue tile in the living room above picture? Yeah. That's got to go)

I'm slowly getting this done. Then I'm going to work on my office next!! That should be fun!

Do you have a lot of wall colors? What color is your favorite room in your house?



24 comments:

Sarah said...

I've been in my house for about 5 years, and it's an open concept and all one cream color, which is what the builder put on the walls. You're inspiring me to consider a little color ... but I've flubbed so many paint jobs that I don't trust myself to choose the shade! Best of luck with your dining room--the other rooms look great!

Maria Zannini said...

Excellent choices! It looks beautiful.

I have a soft mossy green for the master bedroom. Very soothing.

But I went a little daring and used a dark taupe color for the kitchen/living room (also open concept). At first I thought it was too dark, but it's a nice contrast with the white molding and richer-colored rugs and paintings.

Anonymous said...

I love the blue and the green!

I had the pink problem once, years ago. I thought I was painting my walls a rich off-white, but when it dried it was a fleshy pink. It was pretty awful. I'd spent so much time painting it myself - big, eat-in kitchen and open living room - that I just lived with it for a few months until I couldn't stand it any longer.

Jessica Lemmon said...

Beautiful, Jennifer! I need to repaint Our l. Room and kitchen too...ugh, I dread it!

MJFredrick said...

Gorgeous! I particularly like the way the fireplace is framed in white. Nice contrast.

I have yellow walls in my sunroom. They're a little too bright for me now, but trust me when I say it took me a WEEK to paint that room (so many windows to float!) and I'm in no hurry to do it again. My living room has one denim-blue wall behind the TV, my hallway is a mossy green and my bedroom is a pretty coastal blue with white trim. Yes, I like color, lol!

CJ Kennedy said...

Your house looks like something from a magazine. Gorgeous!

Connie Keller said...

Beautiful home! I like the color choices you made.

Our house has a lot of color. My favorite room has a warm gold paint.

We're painting my study and the kitchen in the next couple of weeks. Deep blue.

Karen Lange said...

Love your color choices! Thanks for sharing the pics.

I am a big fan of most greens, so my kitchen is a dark, olive-ish green. Was hesitant to go that dark, but my kids encouraged me to go for it. They all have a good eye for color and artsy stuff, so I took the plunge. Really glad I did.

Looking forward to seeing your dining room when you get that far.

Happy Monday! :)

Emily R. King said...

I love your gray green in the kitchen. It's fab!

Unknown said...

I love that color of blue. I may have to use that. My walls are pretty neutral right now, but I'd love to add some color.

Anne Gallagher said...

Those colors really made a difference. Great choices.

Our new house is beige. The whole thing from top to bottom. So come this fall I am definitely painting, ripping up carpet, and going nuts. You should see the pineapple wallpaper in the hallway. yeah, that's going too.

Old Kitty said...

The colour scheme changes are so subtle but oh so amazing when you see the before and after pics!! Wow!! You have a dream home!!! Yay! Take care
x

Carol Kilgore said...

We have very similar styles. Our downstairs is also open concept, and my living room is almost the same color as yours. That color flows through a small eating area on the outside wall and into the kitchen on the outside and end wall. The inside wall of the kitchen and eating area to the stairs is chocolate brown. The dining room and my office are a saturated golden green, similar to "Asparagus" by Olympic but maybe with a little more golden brown.

Name: Holly Bowne said...

I'm jealous! We really need to paint as well! My hubby and I were completely boring with our first house. We stuck with white and taupe. But a few years (cough...decades!) later, we're starting to get a little bolder. We've got a nice moss green in our bedroom and office and I'm thinking about going even more radical with our living room.

I LOVE how your kitchen turned out! You really accentuated the counter tops with the color you chose. Good luck with the dining room, and the rest!

Rula Sinara said...

Georgeous, Jennifer! I have a lot of color, but like you, I picked muted tones of greens and my bedroom has a soothing blue called silver setting by Behr...it reminds me of your kitchen but a bit lighter. Love your house!

Shelley Munro said...

It looks gorgeous, Jennifer. I love the use of color. We're all neutral in our house but we make use of lots of color in the furnishings.

A.L. Sonnichsen said...

Your house is so pretty! So clean! And I love those colors.

We redid our house when we bought it and my palate was different shades of beige/taupe (pretty safe). But I did our bedroom in a robin's egg blue, and the dining room ceiling in that same color. I still love it! :D

Good luck correcting the rose color!

Anonymous said...

Looks great! The kitchen looks so much lighter.

LTM said...

Oh, wow! Gorgeous! I especially love the kitchen!

We do have a lot of wall colors, and my favorite is (unexpectedly) the purple we used in my youngest daughter's room-! I know! But it came out this sort of antique, pale purple color that's actually really nice.

Happy surprises! :o)

Linda Kage said...

I love all the after photos...but the befores were pretty awesome too!

I have a green living room and kitchen, a bright ducky bathroom (the kid's bathroom, of course), and a two tone blue bedroom. The top part is light blue, the bottom part is dark blue and the two colors are separated by wall paper border. *shrug* I like it!

Melissa said...

Ooo. Lovely! Good job!!! :D

Kristin Rae said...

Your kitchen is GORGEOUS!! WANT! Lovely paint colors... new paint makes a space so much more romantic, doesn't it?
I really like the colors in our master bedroom. 3 of the walls are a sort of light tan, and the wall the bed is on is darker brown. And my office is sort of a powdery blue with white wainscoting, which is cheery :)

Susan Flett Swiderski said...

Beautiful color choices. Used to be, I painted our house every couple years. That's 'cause I used to be YOUNG. Now, not so often, but we still have a lot of color around here. Lots of shades of green in most of the house, and a much too deep blue in one of the bathrooms. (But given the choice of painting it again or living with it, I can live with it just fine.) My favorite is the living room and hallways. I just did them last year in a color called pineapple upside down cake. (Really!) Doesn't smell anything like the real thing, though. Darn it.

Thank you so much for you kind comment regarding my mother-in-law's death. I truly appreciate it.

Terri Tiffany said...

I love love your kitchen and your color choices! Thank you for taking pics! Enjoy it!