Another Paint Color Party!

One of my favorite topics is paint color and the effect on mood!  Where I would guess most people worry about matching furniture, making the general public happy when painting, I consider the effect of color on the mood of those in our house.  (You’ve heard about the prison who painted all the walls pink?)
So, that said, through the years in our 6 states and 14 hours, we’ve had opportunity to live with and paint different colors here and there.   The new trend of light blues/grays are beautiful but not sure if our style.  We are currently renting, so no painting for a while.  Therefore, I share my favorite colors from the past.
Pittsburgh Paint Carob Chip
When deciding on a purple shade, I’m sure a groan emits……not wanting it to look like a  funhouse, but a rich, eggplant color.  I found this at the bottom of a “brownish” paint chip – Carob Chip.


This was my office and had been painted 3 times in one year.  It was navy blue when we moved in:

I hated this.  Could not function.  Turned my brain “off”.  lol  So then I tried to play nice and paint it taupe:

After painting it taupe, I was literally sad.  Terribly sad and didn’t know why.  It was then that I realized COLOR has a huge impact.  I spent a lot of time thinking about what color would I love to paint, whether it was practical or not.  Since this was also technically a formal dining room, I knew I could be bold.  I chose Carob Chip, crossed my fingers and voila’!  It was amazing. 

Pittsburgh Paint Raspberry Truffle
Another color we stumbled on was seen in a home on the real estate tour one day (I am a licensed real estate agent, inactive due to disability.)  I was super lucky when my husband fell in love with it and asked to paint it in our bedroom.  I would venture to say this surprises his side of the family – that he would venture away from the safe colors  - but he is VERY affected by color and I’ve learned that making him happy color-wise goes a long way to marital bliss.  :)   Please IGNORE carpet color – house came with this and we saved our pennies until we could replace it.  We treated it as a neutral.  ;)




Same color – different house – different lighting.  We hadn’t finished the trim yet.  It never felt “peach-based” which I think it looks like in this photo.  I had to push for the neutral bedding.  Our bedding currently, at once again my husband’s request, is a bright RED.  Yes, of course, red is known to be a calming color.  Ha!  Not!  But he likes it and if he’s happy, we’re all happy. 

I’m joining the Paint Party over here:

Randomness

First, I wanted to clarify what "lol" means for those who might be wondering. "Laugh(ing) Out Loud"

Secondly, do you or your loved ones struggle with upcoming birthdays?  I never have and just cannot understand why birthdays are SO hard for my honey.  This year, he was down in the dumps for almost the week prior.  What gives with that?  He has always been like this and when he turned 30, oh my, it was not pretty!  Any tips (for him or me?  lol)

Even with my physical issues, I wouldn't trade my 40's for any of my 20's or 30's.  I just imagine my life getting better and better and better!  Shoot, when I wake up and dirt is not over me, I figure it's a great day.  Probably because of what I've been through in the last few years, but every year is a gift, a precious gift.  I don't want to spend a minute being sad about that.

And a quirk of mine - I prefer even numbers, and feel more content when I am 42 instead of 43, let's say.  And then if we have 44, which is coming up in June - all the better!  A double even number.  Woo Hoo!!  And I've actually met a few other people with this quirk.  I've always been this way.  With my birthday on the 13th, and I barely missed turning 13 on Friday the 13th by one year!  Close call - I was turned 14 on Friday the 13th.  lol  My brth month is an even number, and I tried to have the boys in even months, but only succeeded with one.  With Ryan, his month, day and year are all uneven numbers.  Boy, he did not cooperate!  I tried SO hard to have him on the 10th!  lol

And regarding color - does color affect you?  Have you noticed being happier or more productive in a room of one color versus another?  Years ago, my home office was painted navy (from the previous owners) and I just didn't like it.  We had a lot of other color in the house, so I decided to paint it a taupe shade.  Boy was I miserable!  It was as if my brain just turned off when in that room!  Took me a while to figure out that the taupe was just uninspiring to me, and being a real estate agent, plus a home stager and decorator at the time, I relied on my creativity and ability to be spontaneous.  I needed a color that would inspire me, and when I painted the room Carob Chip from Pittsburgh Paints, I was in HEAVEN.  This color is a deep shade of plum, with a chocolate brown undertone.  So many plums and purples are just TOO purple, you know?  This shade was just amazing and the pictures don't do it justice.  Along with my favorite desk of all time and all the light in the room, it was just bliss.  My favorite room of my entire life, honestly. Here are the photos - what do you think?

And I can tell you from personal experience that color DOES affect pain.  So if you suffer, please surround yourself with your favorite color, whether painting a wall, getting a rug or pillow, or just some fabric you love.  It will brighten your day!


Navy, already painted when we purchased the home:

Tried this tan to neutralize (matched carper in adjacent room):

Bliss!  Carob Chip from Pittsburgh Paint - you had to experience this room in person to get the full effect! 

BTW, we lived in this house just over 2 years, so that's a lot of painting.  lol  We did neutralize most of the house prior to selling, as any good stager would recommend (lol), but I could not part with this room color.  Also, changed this room over to a dining room (staged) for selling purposes.  Here is that photo (showing the new carpet also):

I am really hoping and praying that Heaven is filled with color.  If it ends up being blah beige, I will be so sad.  lol  When owning homes, you have freedom to paint and express yourself.  When we decided to rent in our new town, I was resigning myself to a beige life.  But wouldn't you know the perfect house for us was filled with color??  I dreamed it and it became a reality, and we are so happy here.  To see photos of my crazy colorful life in houses, click HERE.  I participated in a blog carnival for weeks showing photos of many of the houses we have lived in.  And after having rented for 2+ years, I cannot wait to own again and put my personal color back in my life!

Have a great day!

Show Us Where You Live Friday - Foyers & Entrances

I'm a little late, but this week is Foyers and Entrances over at Kelly's Korner Blog. I wanted to show you what "staging" and "neutralizing" looks like when you have a very custom home. When we purchased this house, we LOVED the colors. Some people call us crazy, and the house was actually priced DOWN because of all the color and the fact that most buyers would never have the furniture to match such color.

But this house was the builder's house of the neighborhood, and had all kinds of custom features. He put a lot of extra money in to this home, and as a real estate agent, I knew what a deal we had gotten. In fact, during negotiations, the sellers (builders) realized they might have priced the home too low and tried to get rid of us by extending the deadline, yada yada, but we wouldn't budge. We had to wait months to get in, but it was worth it. I've never loved a house more than this one. Too bad all the bedrooms were upstairs because if we lived there now, I'd be sleeping on the couch in the living room since I can't do any stairs with my nerve damage/numb legs and feet situation with balance issues.

So here are the original colors: (I negotiated that rug into the purchase price, because I knew it was from Pottery Barn, expensive AND tied all the colors together.)

The builder's mother was an interior designer and you can see the wall color matching the custom carpet edging, and if you've seen the kitchen photos from previous tours, you will see the dark green repeated in the counter tops.


Here is a better photo of the rug.


When we knew we were moving to another state, we had to get rid of that navy carpet and dark paint to maximize price, as the market had started to slow. If I had to do it over again, I would probably have picked a buttery gold for the walls, but this light green was really popular and in all the builder's models. I HIGHLY recommend you go visit the model homes to get an idea what is popular in your area when making these decisions.


We left color in the office and the sunroom, but had all other rooms painted. The only room in this house that did not have deep, dark gorgeous color was the hall bathroom upstairs. It was crazy!
And if you've noticed that the office to the right keeps changing colors (it actually went from navy, the color it was when we moved in, to beige to a deep gorgeous plum), click here - Paint Party - for the explanation and photos of that adventure!


If you would like to see all the colorful photos from the entire tour, click HERE. As I've discussed, I HAVE to have color in my life. You can always paint over it if you don't like it, get tired of it, change decorating styles, etc. Studies show color affects mood, and mood affects everyone, right?

Thanks for visiting!

Paint Party!

320 Sycamore is having a Paint Party and I just found it! After you peruse my blog, you will see I am a crazy paint girl - color rocks my world. I am very bold and not afraid of color. If I don't like it, I (or someone I hire!) can always repaint. Color simply calls to me, makes my world go 'round.

So, first up, EVERY girl needs one of these - a Paint Deck!!


I'm a licensed real estate agent (in referral due to disability) and a former Accredited Home Stager, and I LOVED using these paint decks. Just go in to your favorite paint store and ask to buy one - at Pittsburgh Paint, they were $10 a few years ago. So worth it!

OK, my favorite color of all time - Carob Chip from Pittsburgh Paint.


Here is the room in different lighting when we staged the home for sale and made this room a formal dining room, and added a chandelier. This home had TONS of natural light and I do recommend that your paint poster board and put them around your home to see what looks good in your home and your lighting. When we were selling our home, we neutralized it (except for changing the paint in this room - most recommended we leave one room bold. Notice the neutral carpet? lol)

When we moved in, the room was blue:

I never liked it, and tried this beige. Just didn't make me happy, so we then tried the Carob Chip. Love!!

Purple is a very tricky color. This color chip looks almost black and has a deep brown tone to it. I would never have picked it had someone not recommended it - and had I not, I would have been trying A LOT of different plum colors until I finally found this one - it was just what I wanted.


Have you ever painted a room using the darkest color on a swatch? Ack - it can be scary!

My second favorite color of all time is Raspberry Truffle, also from Pittsburgh Paint. It is the 2nd from the bottom of the next swatch -

We used it in several rooms, but here was our Master Bedroom. The navy carpet was already there, so we just considered a neutral until we could change it. lol

I prefer the gold bedspread - thought it warmed the room perfectly.


Oh, and here's another house we used this color in:


We hadn't gotten the new trim up, yet. My preference is white trim, as you can go bold easily with color.


Also, I LOVE that color swatch from Sherwin Williams that includes Ivoire and Blonde. If you have oak cabinets and really want to set them off perfectly, that is THE color to use. Here was one house we used it in:



And finally, our current rent home. Lucky us, it had color too! Here are some photos, although I do not know the paint names on these.


It has been said that perhaps I need a color intervention, but until then, I will continue to let color bring joy to my life and spur creativity within me!! Be bold - give paint a try!

Thanks for visiting!

Cheri