I mentioned in my book blog that I just finished a book called The Nesting Place by Myguillyn Smith. It’s a book all about how home decorating doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful. I’ve never super interested in home decor. I don’t have a Pinterest account or anything like that. My decorating style is practical, functional and not a lot of frill. I like clean lines for the most part. I’m also partial to the colors blue, brown, cream, gray. And that about sums me as a decorator. However, this book got me thinking about my home. I decided to read it based on the recommendation of some of my favorite authors, but also because I’m spending a lot more time at home these days. It seems like now is the time to take some risks and do projects that I’d been contemplating. Here is what Jeremy and I have been up this last week.
It all started with a trip to Home Depot to pick up some paint swatches to put on the walls. For a long time Jeremy and I have been waiting to change the color of our living space. Back in the day when we had cream carpet, the brown wall in our kitchen/dining space worked for us. But… we added a back splash with blues and grays and the brown didn’t quite go as well. Then we changed our carpets out for laminate floors that are brown and suddenly the space at a lot of dark brown in it. When we first painted our house, we painted everything in the front room Toasted Cashew. It was a tan/cream color, but I’ve always wondered if it had too much yellow it in. I’m not a huge fan of yellow. The tan/cream neutral was marvelous when we had all dark brown furniture. But then… we got cream colored furniture that blended with the wall. We also got a set of cube bookshelves that came with cream colored bins. The cost of replacing the bins with a different color was too much, so the cream bins stayed and added more cream to the room. Thus, you now understand our decision to repaint. We wanted to paint the walls all one color again and get rid of the two tone we had going with the brown and cream. We also wanted a color that wouldn’t blend with the floors and furniture. This led us to Gray Mist – the new color of walls. After having the samples up on the wall for a week, Jeremy decided to go for it. I didn’t expect to paint this last weekend, it just happened… Jeremy tackled all the painting while I kept Owen out of everything and alive.
The Samples
Gray Mist
Gray Mist
You’d think painting was enough, but we also did other projects around the house this last weekend. We have started to childproof our cabinets now that Owen is on the move. We added safety latches to the bathrooms because of the chemicals that we store under the sinks. Next will be the kitchen, but because of the hassle, we are waiting just a little while longer. Right now Owen doesn’t know how to open cabinet doors, but we know it’s only a matter of time.
Baby proofing
I also had a few design changes I wanted to make to our front room. First, the bins I was talking about earlier have a plastic covered pouch on the front of them. I’m assuming it’s so you can label the bin with the contents inside of it. I, however, didn’t want to label my bins. I like to keep the insides a mystery to my guests. I wanted to add some visual interest so inside of using the pouches for labeling, I just filled them with scrapbook paper that matched our walls and rug. I really like the pop of color the bins now add to the room while still maintaining their warm, creamy color.
Making the bins pop
We also removed a piece of artwork that has been on a random small wall. We had a picture of the ocean which we loved in our small apartment, but really didn’t have a place in our home. In it’s place is now a framed white board that is also magnetic. I think we’ll use this board a lot in the future and it gives the wall a sense of purpose.
Our new white board
And for an added cuteness factor, here is a picture of Owen “helping” during the painting project. There was lot of gunk to get off the floor after we moved the furniture around. The Swiffer was Owen’s best friend. He might be like is mama in that regard! Swiffer love!
Amy Scott's Thoughts 