Cheerful Sitting Room

One of the things I liked about our current home when we were considering buying it was that it was move-in ready. The carpets were nice, the walls were an acceptable color (not white!), and everything else looked good. As we have lived here, though, I've grown to not appreciate the color of our sitting room walls. The color itself was nice, a warm chocolate brown, but not in such a small room with just one window.

The individual who spent the most time in there was Sadie. She has loved laying in there ever since last summer when she discovered the joys of having a ceiling fan. The second most frequent visitor of the room is my three year-old nephew who likes to play in there a) because of the foot rest (he likes to hide inside it) and 2) no one else goes in there so he has free reign.

The people who lived here before us hadn't just painted the walls chocolate brown, the ceiling had been painted the same color! It was a cave! Fortunately, there's pretty crown molding and faux trim that are white, which helped but not a lot. A few months ago, Steve painted the ceiling white for me. It helped...but not a lot.

I wish I had a picture with the furniture, but this is a good representation of the color.

A couple weeks ago, I sat in there (trying to make more use of the room) doing a puzzle. I kept looking around thinking that it was a good room but too dark and cave-like. I suddenly had an idea. I'd paint the room! I'm not going to school or working, so I have plenty of time to do fun projects. After about 2 milliseconds, I decided to paint the room yellow. I love yellow. It's so cheerful and welcoming. At first, I thought I'd paint it a very faint yellow - white almost, with just a hint of yellow. I wondered if a brighter yellow would clash with my very red couches. While looking at paint chips, though, I tended to go for the brighter yellows. I decided to go with the color I liked best and move the couches into the living room if they ended up clashing.


They don't. The colors look great together!

It took me three days of off and on painting and I was tired but proud when finished. I listened to the the horrible advice of the paint guy at Lowe's and didn't use a primer (what???) because he said the built-in primer in the paint we had bought would be sufficient and I'd only need one quote. What was he smoking? Luckily, I ignored both him and Steve and bought as much paint as I wanted, 3 gallons, instead of what they suggested, 2 gallons. Good thing because I ended up painting 3 coats in order to effectively hide the brown from under the yellow. (Seriously, covering a dark brown with a bright yellow and only needing one coat?? Why didn't I ignore him and use a primer??) Anyhoo, I figure that even had I used a primer, I would have probably painted two coats of yellow anyway, so I would have had to paint those walls 3 times either way. And it looks great. No harm no foul. And lesson learned, I know what I'm doing and shouldn't listen to the paint guy at Lowe's if I think he's wrong.

Sorry, I ranted there for a bit.

Comparison shot - brown walls

Comparison shot - yellow walls

 
With new paint on the walls, I suggested getting rid of the horrible window treatment (sorry, forgot to take pictures) and Steve said okay. Throughout the process, whenever asked his opinion on anything, he said it was my room and I could do whatever I wanted with it. He'd help whenever I needed/wanted, but I got to decorate it however I wished. Yay! He took down the brown, dated, bamboo-esque wood blinds and I went shopping for something new, something simple. I bought the curtain rod at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and the curtains at Target. They weren't what I was planning on - I wanted white curtains with red poppies or other flowers - but when I saw them I loved them! I knew they'd go wonderfully with the pillow cases my cousin made me and would tie in the candles on the fireplace mantle that my mom had gives us.

Shows the curtains and candles, but not what the color really looks like

 I love my new cheerful sitting room and sit in there every day now. The only thing it needs now is art on the walls and repainted ceiling fan blades (yellow, maybe black - opinions?). I already have a print that I love (the inspiration for the red couches) and just need to get it framed so it can go in there. It will be fun to look around for other pieces to add and to watch the sitting room truly become my room, my oasis.

Oh, and Sadie's. She still loves laying in there...even more so now that I'm in there, too!

I love this room!!