Our house came with crazy red walls. We were ok with them, but they clashed like crazy with our faded red chairs. People would awkwardly say, “The red walls and red chairs? But they match so well!” Oh those sweet, polite people. No, they don’t match. They clash in the worst way. We were always like, “Ehhh, we’ll paint eventually.” Five years, two businesses started and two kids later, the red walls are still here plus a LOT more finger prints and scuff marks.
This past spring I stood in my living room and I said to myself, “These walls have GOT to get painted this summer.” Well folks, within two weeks of me saying that, my friend Erin called out of the blue asking if she could do a make over on my living room sponsored by HGTV and Sherwin Williams. I told myself to play it cool and listen to everything she had to say before blurting out “YES!!!”, so I waited as long as I could, listening intently before I just had to interrupt her saying, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES PLEASE!”
So here’s some very humbling photos of my living room before:
That one painting with the tiny sconces next to it? Oh my, how embarrassing. That little wall grouping just sits and sings, “The cheese stands alone” all day. How sad. That painting has great meaning to me, so I’m hoping we can find a better place for it. I’ve wanted to hang a gallery wall of my favorite photos in that space for ages. So that’s what I have in mind there. Thank you suburban home builder for the meaningless cutout display nook above the doorway. Sigh….nothing we can do about that right now, of course. Just had to comment on it.
The red upstairs in the loft and the entryway is going too. It’s red, red, red, everywhere you look. Of course I had to get a pug in a photo. Oh that sweet Stampies. She makes a house a home. (a hairy one, too.)
The furniture is from Ethan Allen, my first major furniture purchase made in my mid-twenties. At the time we were thinking clean, classic and simple. My late husband loved solid colors and wasn’t a fan of patterns. I still love the shape of the furniture, but at the very least, I need to get creative with pillows. We will see what we can do. I’ve never been a fan of that rug, but we were at Ikea, needed a rug and we went for it. John loves it, I hate the mustard in it. We shall see what becomes of it. I will say that it’s held up very well and hides any evidence of the horrible things kids do to rugs. So for that, I give thanks for it.
Here’s Erin’s post about it. I’m so excited! It doesn’t even seem real to me. We have had this red in the house for so long, that I can barely think outside of that box. Thank God for Erin! My hope is to go from dark and heavy to a lighter and happier room. Stay tuned for the big reveal in a month!
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Yay!
by Betsy
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