We bought our house eight years ago. It was our first foray into home ownership, and prior to moving in here I spent some nine years in student housing and rental apartments. You know what those places have in common? Extremely neutral colour choices. Think beige carpets and off-white walls. By the time that we laid hands on the keys for this house I was so over off-white walls.
On the day that we moved in our new living room had the dreaded off-white walls, plus some floral wallpaper straight out of the early 80s.
Our living room on the day we got our keys
I decided that what our new home needed was colour, and I reserved the most dramatic colour for our new living room. I had this idea that I would have dark blue walls (to match our dark blue furniture, of course) with white wainscoting. This was before I’d been through renovations, though. Of course, the wainscoting never happened. Instead, we ended up with a living room that very closely resembled the exterior of an IKEA store. At first, I loved it. But after a few years I was kind of tired of the colour. It was dark, and honestly a bit much. But I kept it, because who wants to go through the hassle of painting?
Our first photo as a family of three, in front of the blue wall
Our first photo as a family of four, also in front of the blue wall
Hannah’s sixth birthday banner, hanging from the blue wall
Back in January I decided that I needed a theme word for 2011, and I chose space. I wanted to make space in my life for myself. Part of giving myself space involved clearing out the clutter, but an equally big part involved intentionally creating a living space that I enjoy being in. If I hate being in my living room, and I spend most of my time in my living room, I’m not exactly making space in my life for myself. And so as a combined birthday / Mother’s Day gift, I decided we needed to paint the living room.
Getting ready to paint
Last Sunday, we did just that. My father-in-law came over, and he and Jon painted while I wrangled the kids. We chose a light gray, which also matches the dark blue furniture, but reflects light much better than the previous colour did. I will say that painting your living room really puts a dent in your weekend, no two ways about it. You’re not going to get a whole lot done besides painting. But I would gladly trade a weekend for a space that makes me smile.
My father-in-law puts primer along the ceiling
Hannah briefly tries her hand at painting
Jon starts on the first coat of gray
It’s taken a few days to put our living room back together, and truthfully, it’s not totally there. But if I’m being honest it wasn’t all there before we took it down, either. My home is not a showroom. But I’m pretty happy with the finished results all the same.
Yes, my kids are watching TV, but check out those walls!
The finished room from another angle
Already the space feels much lighter and more airy. It feels, dare I say, more spacious. Mission accomplished.
Have you ever lived with a paint colour you didn’t like just because the prospect of re-painting was too daunting? And do you favour dramatic colour choices, or do you go for something more subdued? Please tell me! Or just compliment my new living room – that works too.
I love the grey! It really does look more spacious and airy.
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Oooohh good call on the grey – very modern! In my old place, purchased in 2003, I went with the golden yellow that, if paired with your blue, would have created a perfect IKEA ambience! Those colours were in style at the time though! We are moving in June and the family room/kitchen has a plum coloured “feature wall” that we are definitely getting rid of in favour of something bright and calming, probably similar to your grey!
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Having just completed a major building/renovation project that took 14 months, I really appreciate the importance of colour. We live on a lake and have lots of windows, so the light flows in, but we also live in the rain forest under a canopy of huge evergreens so it can get really dark and gloomy on winter days.What to do?
Before we moved over here permanently , I attended a kitchen seminar in Coquitlam and was underwhelmed by the modern colour palette of dark woods and grey walls. (I do love your grey walls and can see the difference it has made to your room, but it wasn’t going to work here.)
I went to the warm tones as we have so much light fir trim here. (Ja, I’m Norwegian, so Ikea speaks to me! It must be all of those northern winters that motivate those Scandanavians to use light and warm colours.) I picked bright caramels, subtle creams, warm melons and softer yellows, thinking it would be a splendid variation but still flowing together into a wonderfully rich palette. Imagine my surprise when, all the painting done, the house looked all one colour! The light just flattened it all into one warm tone. However, I do have a lovely rust powder room and a sage green den to balance, and, all in all, am delighted with the result.
The learning for me is that it’s all an experiment anyway. And paint can be changed, thank goodness!
(And I always appreciate it when I see one of your in-laws or parents helping out. Such a familiar scenario. You’ll do it, too, one day. This parenting support never really stops. It just morphs into something else.)
I love your living room & I love the blue. But… I ALSO like the gray. It definitely opens up the space.
We’ve been living with the same yellow walls since we moved into our tiny condo nearly 5 (!!!) years ago. EVERY room was painted yellow when we moved in. We’ve since repainted our bedroom, but the rest of the house is yellow because… wow, what a hassle. I bow to you, doing the painting yourselves. I think I’d hire someone from here on out. And I have my BFA in painting, too. But painting the walls… that’s a whole different animal than canvas & oils.
Your fireplace is stunning. What a cool focal point!
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It looks really good. Going bold with colour is something you have to do at least once. Like cutting your hair short (still need to that myself…).
About to paint our condo. I actually really enjoy painting. I was even an indoor painter for a few summers in university. Will leave someone else to wrangle the toddler so I can roll paint.
Like any woman who had a child in 2002-04 (and was housebound and watched more “Trading Spaces” than was healthy), I have a red FEATURE wall! Just like all my friends! It’s the red wall of DOOM! I hate it now. I’m jealous of that grey. It’s very sophisticated. But I do think I’ll miss that dramatic blue.
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Sure the blue showed some pizzazz & daring, but I really like the grey! It’s more grown up, spacious (and your furniture still coordinates).
I lived with the “wrong” yellow in my kitchen for years because I didn’t want to go through the expense and trouble of painting around each little cupboard crevice and receptical all over again… but this winter I did change it to a more neutral tone and it’s just SO MUCH NICER! A weekend of work for a better space.
Next I need to gain the courage to repaint my younger boy’s room… he has been living with something that most people call lavender-grey for a few years (I swear on the pain chip it just looked GRAY-GREY)… but kids rooms are a big pain in the patootie to evict long enough to get some good coats of paint on.
AND the foyer/entrance is really beat up… I still like the avacado colour but the can rusted out years ago… the problem of matching the colour is daunting. And so is the scrubbing, filling, sanding and priming!
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I have the same issue with several walls in our house. They just need a little touch-up here and there, but the paint isn’t good anymore, and I don’t know how to match it. I think I’ll just have to wait until I can totally re-paint the room. Luckily, for now I’m quite happy with my living room and so I can ignore the rest of the painting that could probably be done.
It looks beautiful Amber and more spacious!
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It looks gorgeous – so bright and spacious.
Alas, I’m still living with the same drab ‘young urban professional’ colour palate as when we moved in over five years ago. Our playroom is in something akin to battleship grey and the other walls are in a sophisticated sludge. I just don’t have the motivation to get moving on it because sadly it would be exactly that, me getting moving on it, just me and I don’t have the energy
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I do kind of like the blue too, but the place as a whole looks wonderful with the gray – light is so important. especially when you spend days in your house. We had a blue family room for a while and repainted a deep taupe – the other dramatically coloured walls are in my sights. Whatever, at least it’s not builder’s white.
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It looks beautiful! You are right, totally added space and air to the room.
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Ahhh,. some times it’s creepy how much we think alike….Steve and I just picked out our new living room colour and it’s called West Coast…a light greyish colour with hint of blue….sort of like your colour. Our home right now is neutral greens which are nice, just not what we would have picked out. We have lived with it for four years and now that the girls are past the point of doing serious damange to the walls I am ready to paint.
It looks great! I am determined that I will get rid of the grapevine wallpaper in my kitchen . . . one of these days.
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I remember the horrible beige of apartment living, too! When I finally bought a house, it was a log house, so most of my walls are wood. The kitchen has drywall, though, and I immediately painted it bright purple. Your room does look more spacious and airy now, but I have to admit that I love the blue!
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I like your new paint colour choice. Very open and modern and makes the space brighter for sure.
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Looks great! I’m too chicken to use bold colours on my walls. I usually go with something neutral and save the bold colours for accents that can be changed easily, like pillows and window treatments. But I’m kinda boring and safe like that!
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It looks great! I love colors on my walls, but if I ever was able to have one little room of my own, I would paint it all white – from floor to ceiling.
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My (black) husband has a thing for white/off-white EVERYTHING. We’ve lived in the same house now for something like 13-15 years with EVERYTHING very neutral. *I* like color (obviously), or I wouldn’t have married this man. We’re VERY compatible and can eat an entire chicken because he prefers the white meat and I prefer the dark meat. Some friends tell us that they KNOW there’s a joke there somewhere.
Several years ago, I decided to redecorate the guest bathroom. I bought a VERY loud shower-curtain to replace our white one with bright burgundy towels and rug to match. I even thought about painting the walls within something other than off-white and teased that I was going to put a sign on the bathroom saying “colored bathroom” as a joke.
We’ve had the walls washed a few times. We both used to be smokers and smoked inside the house, so removing the tobacco after we quit smoking removed a lot of paint with it. I have some “down to the drywall” spots in my office and had some noticeable “down to the drywall” spots in the foyer (which we had painted last year by the world’s worst painter and brother of a neighbor). Always the environmentalist, I wanted the paint to be some of that new stuff that presumably has no odor and doesn’t affect the environment within the house. Well, it had an odor and our porous walls sucked it in requiring way too many coats to essentially paint it the same color it was previously. If anyone looks closely enough, they’ll see places where the paint doesn’t cover on this new paint job with this new expensive environmental paint. I decided that the most environmental option for us was to not paint anything more at all. It’s all the same and it’s not OCD perfect, but it looks reasonably good and we don’t have to worry about the whole painting process. Also, we don’t have to worry about Astrid “ruining” our new paint job.
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Forgot to mention that my husband is also a space freak, so his preference on color choice lends itself to making everything seem more spacious. It doesn’t stop there, though. He also likes to have drawers and cabinets that are left empty.
Also forgot to mention how GREAT your new grey color looks. Your rooms blend together to create a more spacious indoors.
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