Wednesday, July 2, 2008

The Dark Side

I painted my first room this week. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be, until I thought I was finished and found all these areas I needed to touch up. So I was up on my step stool for another hour painting tiny little strokes near the ceiling. Then this morning I found 5 or 6 other areas that need touching up. Now I'm not sure I'll ever be finished!

The other night I asked Bobby to help get me started and show me some pointers. I did a few strokes to "cut in" - that's painter talk - and panicked. I hated it! Against the yellow I was painting over it looked almost purple. Bobby suggested I go ahead and paint a whole wall before I decided to pick a new color. Well the next morning I painted an entire wall and I definitely liked it more. So I continued to the next wall, and the next wall, and then next wall until I was done. The funny thing is, I'm still not entirely sure about it. Sometimes I think, "way to go Katherine, you picked a really cool and complex color with a lot of gray in it, but also some brown and with the right accent colors it will look really cool." But then sometimes I think, "Who are you kidding Katherine, you don't know crap about color."

And sometimes I worry about painting so much grey in the house. Will it be gloomy and depressing? I don't think it will, but what if it makes us all really dark and depressed? What if start wearing lots of heavy black eye makeup and listening to death metal. People will be like, "Oh yeah, that was Katherine's dark period" and it will all pivot on my decision to use gray for the color of our walls in one of the most important rooms in the house!

What have I done?! :)

Here's the look we're going for, sans the bathtub. Soon I hope to paint the trim white. (First I want to paint the girls' room. Our color of choice for their room? Black, to intimidate my subordinates. Just joking.)



(Here's a picture of the living room before we bought the house with the previous owner's stuff):

And here's a picture of the opposite corner of the room in the new color. (Doesn't even look like the same room!):

14 comments:

jayne said...

If you start dressing Goth, I'll let you know...It really does look great. With white trim and accents it will look awesome.

Heidi said...

LOOKS GREAT! I really want to paint more colors in our home.

hayley said...

You are so funny. i think you picked a great color and will look awesome with white and brown:) How fun! I look forward to owning a home someday.

Anne said...

It looks really good and you are so funny!!

Ashley said...

Me likey. Let's go shopping for accents! The white trim will look so great next to that color.

The last Unicorn said...

I think the room looks great! It is a soft gray and it will be fun to add color to it with your decor. It is very versatile :)
I love to paint! There is something about how much it can change a room that feels like you have accomplished so much once you have done it. Too bad I live in an apt... I never want to paint.

Meredith said...

Oooh, i feel your pain. It is hard to commit, but you have to to create drama. The white trim is key. Don't do anything till you have painted that.

Jill said...

Great color I like it!

Jessica said...

you should loft the dining table

Danette said...

I hate to paint. More than that, I hate picking out the right color. There is so much to take into concideration and it is all too much for me.
You seem to have it down. The color looks great and I think you would make a gorgeous goth, so don't worry!

Julia said...

Love painting....although I've been in this house nearly 7 years and I still need to finish painting above the stairs.

Good work!

christine said...

Personally I love gray as a wall color. My kitchen is gray.
It looks nice, not depressing. Anyway, it's much more soothing than the lemon lime thing you had going on before.

Aubrey said...

It looks like you have your hands full. Painting is always a chore but sure worth it in the end. Good luck!

Johanna said...

The paint color looks great to me! Much, much better than the other colors that were there. :) Wow!

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