Hello dear readers! I thought my hiatus during my move would be over much sooner, but alas I decided to give blogging a rest while getting my new home in order. I will admit it’s still not in order, but I think a return to blogging is in order…
For some reason, painting has become step numero uno in my new space. This is all contrary to what I have learned from hours upon hours of HGTV viewing over the last decade or so of my life: Don’t start your decorating choices with paint color. Paint is one of the cheapest items on the decorating list, and probably the easiest to match to whatever else you have. But I’m not buying much new furniture or anything else right now, so — in my mind — paint is the logical first step. It also helps to do it first since it would kinda suck to totally move in then have to sort of un-move-in to paint, room by room. The downside is that, almost two months after moving in, it’s still pretty chaotic around here. But I’m getting to where I want to be. And I think when I’m done it will feel right.
How does this fit with the office? If you’ve been following along, I came to the conclusion that my office would be decorated the right way: I was going to pick some really awesome fabric for curtains then pick a paint color to go from there. My desk and bookshelves are light and mid-toned wood, so they’d go with nearly anything. This was a good decision because it gave me the freedom to unpack my office and get to work rather than waiting around until I had time to pick a color and find a whole day to paint. Still, I’m feeling like it’s a unfinished and I’m looking forward to the day my workspace is a bit more inspiring.
So far most of my house is turning out to be blue, and I’m starting to see my office as turquoise. A natural extension of blue, right? Along those lines, this is a home-or-not office blog, here’s what I’d keep in mind for your office:
- Do you want it to flow with the rest of the house or building?
- Would you rather it feels like you have some separation?
- Can you see into it from the main living areas?
See the links in my last post for how color can affect mood. I’m sure I’ll be writing MUCH more about this in the future as my plan progresses.
Here are a few rules I’ve made about painting:
- Always buy the sample jar of your top color choice(s), if it’s an option for your paint. I prefer the stores that offer smaller samples in the 3-8oz range rather than the larger samples (ahem, Sherwin Williams, I’m talking to you). You just don’t need that much to know if the color will work and then you have to deal with disposing of it properly if you don’t use it up.
- Don’t assume that if a color looks good in one room it will look good in another. Or, for that matter, a color from a magazine, your friend’s house, or your favorite store. My dining room was going to be a lovely green: Behr’s Asparagus. It’s a really pretty color. However, it looked awful with our wood trim (made it look very orange) and in our very sunny room the yellow undertones were much brighter than in other rooms. (Some colors just look better with white trim…) Solution: Sherwin Williams Great Green.
- Don’t be discouraged if your test color doesn’t look good after you get it on the wall. This is not a good excuse to paint white or beige instead! Whenever the colors I test don’t work out on the first try (pretty much always since I keep going for colors prone to metamerism), I usually go through a range of trying other similar colors and some that are dramatically different. After much debate, I usually end up figuring out that the right color is actually just a few shades off from what I picked first. The tricky part is deciding which direction to go: less yellow? more gray? both?
- If you have the skills, skip taping. I’ve decided that it takes more time to tape than it does to clean up little mistakes you might make if you’re good at cutting in. I just keep one wet and one dry paper towel handy.
- Pick low- or zero-VOC paint if you have the option. Indoor air quality is a major contributor to sick building syndrome. For more: Consumer Reports. Want to go even safer? Try milk paint.
And now a treat for those of you who made it this far. Here are the blues I’ve got in the house so far:
Martha Stewart’s Faded Ink, Darkening Sky, and Twilight
I’m thisclose to painting another few rooms with these two:
Also Martha Stewart Living, Salt Water and Myrtle Blossom
Oh, and the greens I had trouble with? (see tip #2 and #3)
In real life I think they are about the same darkness and not quite so retro. I started with the one on the left and ended with the one on the right, but only after seriously considering about 10 other shades (green and others). Don’t give up! Looking for my greens makes me think, maybe I should just do this for my office?
Source: Domino Magazine via Material Girls
