Living Room Facelift: The Reveal!

Last week was almost entirely devoted to repainting my downstairs. The final result is pretty great, almost exactly as I envisioned it. There were only a few hiccups.

But before I start, please ignore the clutter on my dining table and the pizza box on the kitchen island, and other signs that point out the obvious: last week I was so busy painting that I barely even did the dishes, let alone keep my dining table clear of Target bags or take the pizza box out to the recycling. Tidy Emily returns tomorrow morning, but for now we'll just chat about the new color scheme. 

You'll recall that I planned to repaint the dining and kitchen area green, continue the green via "wainscoting" throughout the living area plus a splash of blue, and incorporate a saffron yellow accent wall. I almost succeeded in every respect, almost

What's missing here?

Yep, we decided against the blue. The "French Court Blue" that we loved by itself just refused to work with the other colors. When painted on the small wall between the living area and kitchen it clashed with the adjacent yellow wall. Then I painted a thin blue line on top of the green "wainscoting" to add a splash of coolness, but that just made the green look messy. So I ultimately took the "less is more" approach and repainted over the blue so the wall is just white and green.

Repainting the downstairs took all week to complete, not because painting itself is difficult but because I wanted my work to look professional and clean. The trick was carefully taping off the areas I did not want to paint (door frames, etc) and moving slowly to avoid accidents. 

The "wainscoting" in particular was very slow going. I used a measuring tape, level, and pencil to draw a straight line across the wall at roughly the height of an average dining chair (34 inches from the floor). Then I used painter's tape to delineate the green/blue line across the entire wall. To get a truly clean line, I brushed one layer of clear polyurethane on the edge of the painter's tape and onto the wall below it. Once that dried, I painted the area below the painter's tape with the green paint. After allowing the paint to dry completely, I carefully removed the painter's tape to reveal a clean, level line across the wall. 

Here's a close-up of the "wainscoting":

Cannelle photobomb

Anyway, here's the before (from the front door looking toward the back yard):

Here's the after:

The new colors are more inviting and warmer and the space has a much better flow. We also really like how the green compliments the colors in our art and colors we typically choose for furniture and fabrics (blues, yellows, reds, etc). Most importantly, that awkward blood red wall is now a soothing color that ties the space together. The next step in this process will installing new laminate because our current laminate needs to be repaired but isn't made anymore, so we either have to replace the whole floor or live with a hole in our dining area. We are planning to go darker and get a laminate with a "plank" effect. Farther down the line we also hope to replace our kitchen cabinets and update our furniture with "investment pieces," but both of those topics will have to wait for another day...

[F]unemployment

As of Tuesday I have been unemployed for a full month, but this has been anything but a lazy, dull month. The first few weeks I applied for jobs in Alaska and DC like nobody's business. This did nothing to change my situation. Then I started following up on old job leads. This lead to some positive movement, but no concrete changes signaling an end to my status as part of Romney's 47% percent (in my defense, the money I currently receive from the State is unemployment insurance I paid out of each of my paychecks plus what was matched by my previous employers, so I'm not a total freeloader just yet!). 

In addition to taking positive steps toward finding work, I've been busying myself around the house. Last week I tore down our pony wall to create an open concept living/dining/kitchen space downstairs. This week I am repainting the downstairs to propel us toward a nice update. The overall concept for our downstairs is French/provencal colors with slightly industrial furnishings and details. During our most recent Home Depot run, I bullied convinced Leigh to go with a 3-tone pallet: saffron yellow, "French Court" blue, and a muted, basily green.

The wall below with doors leading to our pantry and utility closet was previously an orangey-yellow. We really loved that color contrasted with the black picture frames. It was the only non-white wall in our entire downstairs, except for a rather tragic blood-red accent wall we inherited from the previous owner. On Day 1 I repainted the orangey wall a Saffron yellow color. Then I painted the previously white wall to the left the "French Court" blue color.

There are two major problems with this picture: 1) the colors look great as part of a green-blue-yellow pallet, but next to one another on a wall without something breaking them up they just look weird. 2) Leigh says the blocked out way I painted these walls reminds her of her high school. I agree. It isn't working for me either. The really weird part is that I LOVE each color on its own and when I look at the walls from various angles they look great.... except for THIS particular angle, it just looks terrible. So back to the drawing board....

Before scrapping all my work so far I decided to put some of the green up to see how it looked. I love it. Leigh loves it. It's a winner. 

The next step is to extend this green into the kitchen (pretend you don't see all the clutter, thanks). In the long-run we plan to replace our cabinets (they're original to the house and Leigh can't stand the musty smell, plus I want something prettier and more functional). But for now pretty much all the white spaces in the kitchen will be green. 

Referring back to a variety of home decor websites, I got the idea to extend the green color throughout the living room as faux wainscoting. Apparently this is a typical use of color in provencal homes. So I will continue with the green color from the moulding to roughly the height of a dining chair.

This "wainscoting" will extend from the window near the [formerly] red wall, wall the way around to our stairs leading into the living area. The current "French Court" blue wall (not pictured, but to the right of the above image) will be repainted white with the green on the bottom too. I'm hoping this will make the space feel more open and allow the theme to feel continuous rather than choppy like it would with a bunch of accent walls.

But what about the beautiful blue color I love so much but just couldn't find a place for? Well, for now I'm planning to top the "wainscoting" green with a thin strip of the "French Court" blue all the way around the room. That way we can bring the color in via furniture and fabrics without it seeming to be "out of the blue" (har har). I'm also hoping that Leigh will permit me to repaint the cabinets on our currently black kitchen island to match... but I'll save that battle project for another day.

Even though I've been super busy every day (today I drove Leigh to work, primed and painted a few walls, did the dishes, bought an infant car seat, attended a lawyers luncheon, and chauffeured Leigh home from work), I indulge in some guilty pleasures. For instance, over the past two weeks I completely caught up on the last two seasons of Teen Mom on Hulu.

My TV time looks a lot like this:

 Ever heard of "personal space"?

Yep, I'm also a full time mom to Juneau Cat and Cannelle Dogger. These two are great pets and are self sufficient, provided that we stick to our routine of NOT being home all the time. My change in schedule has caused them to change their previous routine of sleeping all day and playing with us in the evenings to bugging the crap out of me all day. We are still establishing a yard time/play time routine, but I think the consensus is that I stink at being a stay at home mom to any creature.

Of course, they're awfully cute too. That white thing Cannelle is snuggling is a baby's onesie. This plain white onesie had some schmutz on it, so I set it aside thinking I would try washing it out. Cannelle snatched it up right away and started playing with it. Cannelle is known for destroying her toys by systematically ripping them apart, usually eating the cloth and rubber parts. But 4 days later this onesie is still completely intact and her new favorite snuggly toy to sleep with. If this is any indication I think Cannelle will be an excellent big sister!