Paint | Operation Home

That’s right, folks! Madness, I tell you!!!

So, in order to really review the changes that’ve gone down as of late, let’s look back at the journey that our dining room has taken up to this point. Because I like journeys. And progress. Progress is good. So, when I revisit a journey it makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something even though I’m not done yet. It’s like giving myself a pep talk. I guess that’s what this blog really is, huh? One giant pep talk. Plus, it’s fun. And I like it. I like to blog. I like a lot of things today. It’s a good day. Wow. #patonback

(*coughcough*) Anyways. Moving on… when we purchased the house, the space looked like this, complete with beige carpeting that was just BEGGING for stains…

So, we changed out the carpet for ebony laminate and plopped our furniture down on moving day…

…and added a rug, curtains and shelves…

I liked the space well enough like this, but it just wasn’t right. Something just rubbed me the wrong way. Annoyed me. Made me twitch. After much deliberation, I realized as much as I loved the rug, I couldn’t help but feel that it was competing with Drex (my beloved mid-century buffet) and our awesome 70’s stone fireplace. Ya know, the two pieces that really should’ve been stealing the show to begin with. There was just a lot of brown happening. Too much. I thought that maybe painting the table white would help change up the tone of the room and allow the rug to work in the space. So, I did that…

The process was pretty simple… I cleaned the table really well, wiped it down with deglosser, then painted it with a coat of Zinsser shellac primer followed by 3 thin, even coats of Sherwin Williams Proclassic Extra White in Semi-gloss.

Once the paint had cured, I tried the rug again…

But I just couldn’t do it. The white table didn’t take away from the orangey-brown tone of the rug at all. And I was having trouble envisioning the space without it. So, we removed the rug…

(Excuse the red chairs in the corner… I tried them in the space, but they didn’t work.)

Once the rug was gone, something still bugged me. And I was having trouble imagining the space with a different rug. The ideas just stopped. And that was when I realized that I needed to simplify further. The chair covers. Although I really loved them, the busy pattern really limited the other elements that I could add to the space. I needed something more neutral and simple.

So, I visited Ikea and picked up six of these deep grey covers….

I switched them out once I got home, and now the space looks like this…

(Note: I’ll be ironing them soon)

You guys. I finally feel like I’m onto something here. Things are jiving. I love how the cool grey tone of the covers makes the gorgeous wood of Drex pop….

And the subtle texture of the woven slipcovers add interest and depth without being too overwhelming…

And they allow the fireplace to shine from this direction….

(Now to paint those darn built-ins… Oh,yes.)

I feel like the room has been cleansed. It has a whole fresh new outlook (like me today, apparently). 😉 Now, I have a much clearer idea of what else the space needs in terms of a rug and other accessories. This clarity of thought is also bleeding into the living area as well. Now I have a much better idea of where to go decor-wise. Sometimes you just gotta strip to figure it out (wait…).

So, anyways, this is kind of how things go for me when it comes to decorating. Trial and error. I live with things for a while to see how I like them, change things up until elements start clicking. I think sometimes in order to figure things out, you just have to clear the space. Cleanse the palate if you will, to get a fresh perspective. More often than not, my first decor move doesn’t work, but it gives me a good base to work off of. And that’s all part of the fun.

So, with that, I hope you all have a great weekend! Tell me your thoughts on this… Do you ever think a room will go in one direction, only to strip it down and go another? How do you handle that?

Howdy, guys! How goes it on this lovely Tuesday? Today, I thought I’d share what’s going on in our our teeny pool-bath.

Last we left off, I’d added shelves and accessorized a bit…

As grateful as I am to have a pool bath, I wasn’t exactly feeling it in the state you see above in all it’s purpleness. Don’t get me wrong… purple’s a fine color. It’s just… this particular shade of purple affected my mood. NO JOKE. I felt cranky when I stared at it. It just wasn’t my jam.

Well, now, I’m happy to report that I’ve rid the space of purple and brought it back to a blank slate so that I can get going on the light, bright, and fun pool-bath that I have in mind. I mentioned in this post that I had to repaint this room several times in order to get it right. Ya see, in my mission to paint the room in a light and airy tone, I went a little TOO light. The result was a washed out minty green color. Observe…

I was looking for more of a teal, and somehow, despite the appearance of the color swatch, it just didn’t turn out that way. Plus, it appeared much more yellow than expected due to the lighting in the space. Luckily, since the room is so tiny, it had only taken me a little over an hour to paint it, so I decided to try again. But, this time I vowed to spend zero dollars. Since I have so many partial gallons of paint in the garage from various projects over the years (and really, none of these hold enough paint to do anything significant with them), I decided to mix my own color….

I took my minty green base and and added in navy blue, and several different greys and greens until I came up with this greyish teal…

Again, it looks super green because of the lighting as you can see in this shot of the completed room…

… but honestly, it took me a while to figure out that the lighting was the culprit. I just kept coming back to the space and staring at it. IT.WAS.JUST.SO.GREEN. A completely different color than the paint appeared in any other light. But, I refused to paint it again. Not a third time. No.WAY. Then, I realized that not only did the PAINT appear more yellow than intended, but the bright white DOOR seemed yellow as well. And that’s when the cables connected and I realized that it was the lighting. I opened the fixture and realized that the energy-efficient bulbs were “soft white” which tends to cast a more yellow hue. So, I went online, searched for my bulbs in “cool white” which casts more of a bluish tone, and found this guy…

(from Amazon)

I love this picture. Isn’t it other-worldly?? As if the bulb comes complete with it’s own magic light-beams and “angel’s singing” theme song??? Heehee! Sold by this heavenly depiction, I ordered two and installed them a few days later when they arrived in the mail.

And here’s the room with my new cool bulbs (Note: both shots were taken in “Auto Mode” on my camera)…

HUGE difference, right??!!! Not only is the wall color more blue, the white fixtures, door, and trim now read as the crisp white that they were meant to be. I have to say that this is exactly the color I was seeking for my fun, colorful pool bath! A bright, pretty turquoise. I thought I might even extend pops of this color into the laundry room by painting the vanity or possibly my don’t-own-it-yet-mirror. That simple, easy, and inexpensive light bulb change saved me from a third paint job. I’m SO completely digging the color now. I’ve also decided to not reinstall the white shelves that were in the space before. I’m definitely adding back shelves for storage, but they’ll be a different style. I’ll let ya’ll know when I get around to that project for sure. In the meantime, I’ve been working (slowly) on other parts of the house, namely the dining room, so I’ll update you soon.

Anyways, I hope y’all have a terrific day! Do any of you have any other tips or tricks for maximizing your paint color? Or have y’all ever been in the situation of “paint color regret”? How did you solve it? Did you repaint? Change your decor? Your light bulb?