Fresh Paint

The last time I got to paint a room I was ten. My parents had been renovating our house for nearly and year, and it was finally at the point where it was sort of becoming a livable space. Finally, I was going to be able to have my own room with a four poster bed and a beautiful view of the lake. I chose to sponge paint my room blue. "It'll be like living in a cloud," I had said. It was nice...until it wasn't any more. It felt very juvenile at one point, particularly when my sensibilities were becoming more sophisticated (or so I thought). My parents toyed with the idea of letting me paint my room again towards the end of high school (red, with a kind of Far East/Indian theme), but they were a bit preoccupied with making the rest of the house suitable for the presence of people who weren't limited to our small four person family. My bedroom just wasn't top priority.

Now, some years later, I've finally come to a point where not only do I get to paint my bedroom, but an entire house. While the downstairs areas will likely be left for another time (except for the basement), the upstairs has to be reconfigured, so we'll get a chance to do fresh paint right away. So, we'll be painting a hallway and two bedrooms (ours and Lizzie's).

I had two clear ideas on what colors I wanted our bedroom and Lizzie's room to be. First of all, our bedroom. What woman doesn't want a little something from Tiffany's? I know that it's not likely DOH is ever going to pick up something for me that comes in the signature little blue box, but why not pay homage with a spiffy coat of that beautiful blue?

 

When we were in Home Depot yesterday (killing time while we waited to hear back from the buyer), I picked up a bunch of different paint swatches. While "Tiffany Blue" is a trademarked color, I did find something that I thought was, if not the exact same color, was strikingly similar:

 Pretty close, eh? And, of course, the color looks much more vibrant and rich in person (this is Glidden paint, by the way). Computers never quite do color justice. I finally convinced my husband this was the color to go with. He was a little reluctant at first (and this was without me pointing out that it was the color of a Tiffany's box), but I think in the end he realized it was best to just go along with me. Besides, it's a lovely color, it's soothing, but not boring, and I don't think it will overwhelm what will a rather small bedroom. 

Lizzie's room, now that was a bit of challenge. Of course, like many little girls her age, she loves pink. I'm not doing a pink room. The hope is that we'll be in this house for long time and while I expect that we'll probably be repainting rooms, including Lizzie's, at some point, I don't want to have to repaint every year. I would like to give her room a fun color that has some longevity, regardless of where her tastes and interest go. This led me to the color. It looks cute with pink, girly stuff, and it still works with less girly stuff (and, if Liz ever has to share her room with a male sibling for a bit, the green could work for him, too).

Then question was, what kind of green. I immediately wrote off any sort of dark green. It would overwhelm the room and look too adult and/or masculine. I also didn't want to do a pastel green--that would be too babyish after a while, or, if going in another direction, it might wind up looking to sophisticated for a little girl's room. When I found my "True Turquoise" with the Glidden paint, I also found "Fresh Green Grass": 

  

I looooove this color (again, though, it looks way nicer in person). It's crisp, fresh (as the name suggests), and the perfect color for a little girl's room. 

I'm so excited to get started on painting. Our move in date is June 1st, and we're PUMPED. This means we'll be getting the painting done pretty soon (probably as soon as the closing is official). This is going to be pretty awesome.