Sunday, March 20, 2011

Show me the green...

... and I'm not referring to money, although, if you're offering, then I'll take that too. For the first couple months we lived here something about our upstairs just bugged me. I couldn't put my finger on it until -aha!- I realized that everything was some variation of brown. Hardwood floors, knotty alder cabinets, tan walls, darker tan accent walls. Boring.

(These were taken at night so take that into account when judging the photo quality. You can still get a sense for the monochromatic blah that's going on.) 




I started thinking about what color would liven this space up in a soothing, natural, contemporary kind of way. I also had to take into account that whatever color chosen would extend throughout the entire first floor of our house because there are no natural breaks in the wall anywhere.

Let the inner dialogue/argument commence.

Purple?
Ick. Why would you even consider that?
Blue?
No, our bedroom is blue and that would just be too much.
Red?
No. I want cool colors to let the floors feel warm.
Orange?
Did you not hear me about the red?
White?
Ok, that's it. You're fired.
Aha! Green?
Hmmm.... yes, I think green could work. But not yellow-green. More like a grey-green with a cool tone. And something subtle that will provide a good backdrop to whatever else is going on in the room. Good work, self!

Out came the Sherwin-Williams color deck. And the Benjamin Moore color deck. And the blog stalking. And the google surfing with search words like "green living rooms"

I settled on 7 possibilities and collected samples. Here's what I came up with:
From left to right: SW Acanthus, SW Recycled Glass, SW Bonsai Tint, BM Tea Light, BM Nob Hill Sage, BM Prescot Green and BM Kittery Point Green.

(Can you detect the awful underlying pink hue in this wall color?)


We mutually agreed that rather than painting the whole upstairs, we're just going to paint the "accent" walls because they bother me the most. My top picks are the Acanthus (far left) and the Kittery Point (far right). Jason only likes the Tea Light (fourth from the left). Here are some close-ups.



(These look blue-er in this photo than they are in real life)

What do you think?

Once I choose a color, I can stop wasting money on paint samples ($6 bucks a pop starts to add up) and start saving that money for a new fixture to hang above the dining table...


Tiella Bronze courtesy of Lowes
5 light antique bronze - Overstock.com



                                         
                                                         Serena Drum Chandelier by Oly Studio. 


I'm leaning toward the Serena by Oly Studio or the Tiella Bronze from Lowes. But we'll have to see how things shake out. You never know what Google will turn up when searching "moderately sized drum chandelier that looks natural yet sophisticated in oil rubbed bronze that I can install myself"