Living Room

As promised, today I present the painted living room. I mentioned in previous posts that the three paint colors for the connected open spaces (kitchen, hallway(s), and dining/living rooms) were related. The undertone to the kitchen and living room colors (the taupe and the gray) is blue - obviously the hallway is blue. Our idea was to refresh the home and reflect the greatest draw to living here: the water.

Last week we were watching HGTV for a change, and an episode of Designed to Sell provided inspiration. As the possibility of buying a home, and then the very real reality of updating a home, took over our lives, we started paying more attention to design shows, photos, spaces we passed or visited etc. Crown molding has always appealed. However, our ceiling is popcorn-y (sigh), so adding it to this place would look neither smooth/seamless nor elegant at all. So we abandoned the idea. Until the aforementioned DTS episode showed us another option. To create an architectural element, as well as an updated designed detail to the space, the designer added the illusion of molding by painting a thick stripe of white at the top of the room. Both of us reacted thusly, "Oh!" So we entertained the idea of taping off a 5-6" strip from the ceiling down in the living room. It sounded great at first, and then we got nervous. We're not experienced enough with paint to add detail, we thought. This is a little too advanced, we believed. We can't figure out how to keep the paint from bleeding behind the tape consistently, we concluded. And so we dropped it. We could add it later. I went away to a work trip in Nashville, and Dave set to work with slapping the gray (Little Falls) on our living room walls. I came home to a beautiful, fresh looking space. We finished up the second coat on Sunday, and were pleased. It looked great!

Then... Dave was off from work on Monday, and was suddenly re-inspired. No reason not to try the stripe now! He bought Frog Tape (better than the standard blue painter's tape -- again, there will be a separate post soon about the merits of investing in good tape!), thanks to his sister's advice (thanks, Lynn!), and white paint, and... check it out:

(forgive the clutter... next time you see this space it'll be put back together better!)

Now to put some stuff on these walls! Tomorrow: curtains. And once again, how great is Dave?!