A storms been a brewing for quite a while now around my increasing dislike, disinterest, and completely disregard of my home decor. You see, when life gets busy something has to take a back seat, and so for me that has unfortunately been manifest through very few updates or changes over the past several years to the place I go home every night after a long days work.
It's funny....you don't realize how important "home" is until you've let it go for far too long, and by that time it almost seems overwhelming to make even the simplest change. For a looooong time now....and by that I mean FAR TOO loooooong, I've just let it go. I've convinced myself that rearranging furniture will do the trick, or just a little regular housecleaning will bring everything back to life and make it look brand new, just like it did when I moved in 8 years ago. But you know what??? That didn't work!! It had gotten to the point where I didn't even like the look of anything and so I simply turned all the lights off so I couldn't see what was bothering me so much and I could live in complete denial! I think I have a talent for that!!
But about a month ago I think I reached my breaking point. I couldn't take it anymore!! I knew it meant that many other things would have to be put on hold.....I'd had to cut back on furniture projects, I'd have to live in the chaos of working on one room at a time which meant that the other rooms would be filled with overflowing furniture and decor. But you know what??...it was now or never. I was finally motivated enough to turn the lights on and do something!!
I decided that paint would be the best way to start and would make the biggest impact with my limited budget. And don't ask me how I came to this conclusion, but I knew I wanted the color to be gray. I don't have any before pictures --- I've found I'm pretty bad at remembering to do that. The color on my walls has been there since I moved in. It was definitely neutral, but over the years it has changed somewhat. What started out as a nice creamy tan has morphed over the years into a dingy yellow. And I HATED it!!! I'm usually a tan girl, love the crisp, clean, light feel of neutrals and the ability to decorate around them. But this color was starting to make me CRAZY!!! Literally!!! I hated the way it looked when I would stage photos of furniture. I hated the way it looked when I took pictures of home decor projects. So it was time!! And gray was it!!
You'd think gray would be easy....right?? Well I've got news for you! It's NOT!! There are so many shades...some with blues, some with lavenders, some with beige, and some with black. I knew that I didn't want to go anywhere near tans or browns so the "greige" option was out! I wanted something crisp and clean but not too dark. What started out as thinking I could quickly narrow down my selection and make a choice with one trip to Home Depot literally turned into multiples samples and the literal version of 50 shades of gray on my walls!! I would paint a sample and think that was the one, but then it would change based on the lighting and so it was back to the drawing board. But I finally found it!! It took 2 weeks and likely a weeks pay worth of paint samples, but I found it!!!
Natural Gray
And I love it!! Like really, really, really love it!!
Here are just a few pictures of the finished project. It took a 3 days to paint 3 rooms so I was too exhausted to put any of the rooms completely back together. But even in it's current state of chaos, it's sooooo much nicer to be in than before!
This is as close to a before picture as I have with the painting in process.
More pictures of painting in progress.
And just a couple of snaps of the finished project!! I can't wait to stage some furniture pieces and see how they turn out!
And this was just the jump start I needed!!
Up next.....planked plywood floors!!!
