Coloring Inside the Lines

When we first moved into our house, I went on a painting rampage. I grew up in an all-white house as far as the walls were concerned. Sometimes, if daddy was feeling particularly daring, they would use antique white. But it was always flat and just, well, white. Mom, thankfully, enjoys hanging things all over the walls, so you never really lacked for visual stimulation, but still, at the end of the day, there was no possibility that the walls could be painted something other than white.

When Tim and I bought our first house (in South Carolina), we pulled down the garish wallpaper and painted. Since we knew we were only there for two years on the outside, we aimed at resale value and thus chose the ever-so-exciting color: white. It made sense and it looked fine. I did rebel a little and use semi-gloss instead of flat, but you have to ease yourself into these things. Sadly, I did not inherit my mom's penchant for hanging things all over the walls, so after a while things started getting a little boring. While we were in SC we made friends with a couple, the wife of whom was big into color on the walls. And it opened a whole new world of ideas. Their house was warm and inviting and colorful. Some rooms just had an accent wall, others were completely painted. And I began to eye our bare white walls, wondering just how negatively it would effect resale value to change things. Other than the one weekend I got nutty and painted the masterbath a lovely Wedgewood blue, everything remained white. But oh! I was plotting.

No sooner had we purchased our house here, but I was at the home improvement store picking out handsful of color chips and concocting schemes for painting in my mind. Tim is an easy-going sort, a fact for which I am consistently grateful. I would show him colors and gesticulate madly about how it would look in this room or that and he would dutifully furrow his brow before finally admitting that he couldn't visualize it, but that if I was convinced I could do as I pleased. And so I did.

Shortly thereafter, the main floor was awash in color - a cheery yellow kitchen, a soothing blue dining room, deep green on the fireplace wall in the family room, and a rich red living room that makes my heart soar everytime I'm in it. And the master bath and guest bath upstairs had been seen to as well (a pool blue in the former, sea green in the latter if you're curious). Finally the library got a burgandy treatment (Cranberry Zing!). And the very last in the initial rampage was the main floor powder room. It was the only hard sell for Tim, because he had concerns about the eggplant purple in a room that small. I convinced him that if he hated it I'd repaint and so he let me loose. I love it. He doesn't hate it.

And then there was a long lapse. I taped a few paint chips to the wall in the bedroom to ponder. But we got caught up with other projects and I practiced turning a blind eye to the guest rooms and the hallways where the thinnest possible coat of paint, unevenly applied by the builder, sat in all its chalky glory getting marked up, dinged, and generally looking miserable. We did manage to finish and paint the basement and, finally, choose a color and paint our bedroom in the intervening years. But I think at last the time has come. The hallways and guest rooms must be painted.

So yesterday I spent a little time poking around on various paint manufacturer websites and playing with their color tools and considering my options. I have a few ideas for the hall that I'll need to get actual chips and see them in the space to really finish visualizing them, but there's already a front runner. And there's an idea percolating in my mind for the nursery. Which simply leaves the guest room. But I have no doubt that inspiration will strike. Because the flat, dinged up, chalky builder paint? It's got to go.