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...