Day 17: Paint the living room and dining room.
My living room is so close to being done. Unfortunately, what I need (rugs, artwork) are big ticket items I can’t buy this month. Soon, though. I can feel it.
It’s amazing how much impact a rug and artwork make. Without them, the room looks bare, cavernous. The emptiness made me nervous, so I moved our cabinet over there temporarily. Once I have the art in place, it will go back into the dining room.
I may not be able to buy the large rugs I have in mind this month, but I knew I could spring for a $20 gallon of paint, which was also on the agenda for finishing this room. The lighting in this room is very tricky. On the left are eastern facing floor to ceiling windows that fill the left side of the room with diffuse, green light. Everything has a sickly cast. On the right the room is flooded with warm light from a large skylight. Combined, it makes picking paint challenging. You can tell in the picture above what I mean. The room is almost cut in half, with the left side cool and green and the right side warm and cream.
The light color on the walls wasn’t working. I wanted something cozier, and my goal is for my home to look like a cross between the New York Public Library, the Museum of Natural History, and a pad in Palm Springs.
I spent 7 hours painting on Day 17, and I think the paint brings me that much closer to my whacky goal. I’ll share better pictures once I finish painting and move the furniture back into place. Hello, Day 18!
New here? For the next 31 days I’m living according to the famous William Morris quote. You can learn more about the project here.
I really like this color with the wood floors and especially with the stonework and the mid-century dresser/sideboard. The color manages to be both serene and warm. I’m definitely getting the pad in Palm Springs vibe. Well as I have never actually been there, it’s more of a Hollywood Palm Springs’ ambience; in fact Doris Day is about to burst through the door of Rock’s pad!
Love your furniture and fireplace. What paint color did you end up going for?
I went with Garden Wall by Behr. It’s a gray green. In these pictures it looks like a cocoa, but it’s not. You’ll see when I put up pictures that aren’t so processed.
Ooh, I like it already!
Definitely feeling the potential of NY Public Library. It feels cozy and welcoming with that new color on the wall.
Can’t wait to see more!
That’s what I was going for! I wanted a nice backdrop for my rock collection.
(Kind of not kidding.)
Very nice! I can’t wait to see more pictures.
I spent the week-end painting our living room as well – only I went with Barista Brown on the bottom and chose Skinny Latte for the top half. So far, so good. At the moment, all of our furniture is piled up in the center of the room, so I’m hoping we don’t have any surprise visitors pop by.
Love that your goals is the museum of natural history and the NYC public library – what images that conjurs up in my head!
very very nice. Love the blue couch and the brown chairs. Very sophisticated palette.
Thank you! My goal is slate blue, cognac, and green/gray. I haven’t decided on my wild accent color yet, but I’m leaning towards dusty rose.
It looks like something Mr. Morris would be proud of. Simple and lovely.
That’s the plan! Simple and lovely doesn’t have to mean cold and bare.
it looks amazing. I love color. I know so many are a fan of white/cream walls, but there’s just something about color that can’t be beat. And man how i wish I thought to get before pictures of all my walls before we painted. What a dunce.
Great color choice! It’s wonderful with all your natural light. I have a dark wall in the living room, but very little light to balance it. I curse the day I chose that paint color.
Wow, makes a huge difference! I can’t believe you chose a color, lol.
I know! What’s next, cats and dogs living together?
Love it! I’m in love, love with that table. What a great find. And I have a nearly exact buffet/sideboard in my house.
Your color really warms the place up
I’m loving all your posts this month! So inspiring….and practical. I love your wood floors in these photos. What kind of wood is it?
Rustic red oak. Lots of burned, knotty wood. I love the imperfections, but the people who installed our floors HATED it. They kept tossing out the burned and knotty pieces until I explained to them that I wanted them. They thought I was insane for not wanting a uniform floor.
Wow! What a great colour! A definite improvement and now you won’t be tempted to “fill” the room so much. Loving your series.
The table reminds me of my grandmother’s table I used to polish for her! Thanks for bringing back a memory.