I Live in a Blank Canvas, and that Needs to Change!
May 21, 2012
When I bought my condo way back March 2010 I didn't really have any direction as to how my home would be decorated as I moved from a space of just 330 sq. feet and had the bare minimum of furnishings and other pretty things to guide me. When I decided to paint the walls in the bedroom and living room when I moved in I had no starting point so I went with plain ol' white. I wish I could say that the shade at least had some sort of cute name like 'Snowflake', 'Puffy Cloud' or even 'Milk, but it was straight off the shelf 'white'.
Yes, white is boring, but I worried that if I picked a fun hue to paint my walls right after I moved in, that choice would taint or colour (Ha!) any decisions I made later surrounding the space itself. I wanted any choices to happen naturally - as I found pieces I loved. Over the past two plus years I've accumulated a few more pieces of furniture and a number of dare-I admit-it knickknacks, and I have a better understanding of how I'd like my space to look. When I look back on what I believed my future space would look like when I moved in (very modern and cool, with an arc lamp and other chrome accents), to what I want it to be now (more transitional, with some warm wood and small gold accents) I'm surprised at the almost 180 degree change in my decorating direction, and I'm really thankful that I decided to resist the new-homeowner temptation to rush out and buy stuff to fill the space so it wasn't so barren and unloved looking.
I'll be attending BlogPodium next weekend, and the title sponsor is Para Paints. Para is offering 5 bloggers who are attending BlogPodium the chance to become part of their blog crew, and giving them 15 free gallons of paint to play with. With the decor direction for my condo more firmly laid out, and the enticement of the contest I've started to think about adding some colour to my space in the form of paint.
This is my kitchen, which in over a year of blogging I haven't yet shown you. It's quite a small space, with not much opportunity for major change without spending quite a bit of money. BTW - those are the counters that were installed when my condo was in an episode of `Home to Go`on HGTV way back in 2002. They were reused when the current cabinets were installed a couple of owners ago.
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| My kitchen |
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| Kitchen colour ideas. Banker`s suit appears almost black online, but it`s more blue. All Paints Para |
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| My Livingroom |
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| All paints by Para Paints |
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| My bedroom |
2 comments
Personally, I think you can choose plenty of colors for your kitchen. Think of it as a 2 piece outfit with a belt. You start with a dark blue skirt, a mustard yellow belt, and what can you do with a top? You can do warm reds, different blues (torquois, baby blue, warm light blue, etc.), yellows, peach, etc. The ideas are limitless when you think of it as an outfit.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of an accent wall. I painted my room recently, and used a white on 3 of the 4 walls, and the 4th wall I painted with a really warm light yellow to make it seem brighter and more open of a space. LOVE IT!
One thing you can do when you're not sure of a color is the following: take a picture of your room, and cut out one of the walls (but leave stuff next to it intact), so that you can place paint chips/samples behind the cut to see how you like the color of the room.
Hi Katia,
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of using a picture and removing the space you're contemplating painting! I'm sure that this could also be done in photoshop, but my skills with that program are quite limited (er - nil) :)
Michelle