Ms. Toody Goo Shoes

Ms. Toody Goo Shoes

I want to go everywhere I haven't been, and back to everywhere I have been.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

THE OLD PAINT COLOR IS "GONE WITH THE WIND"



Fresh Paint in the Living Room - Windham Cream by #BenjaminMoore | Ms. Toody Goo Shoes

Do you have a good eye for picking paint colors?

I've gotten better at it over the years, 
but have certainly had to paint over my share of mistakes.

Perhaps my biggest paint fail was 14 years ago, when we first bought our house.
Jewel tones were "in" at the time, and I just HAD to have a red guest room. 
 I'd clipped many magazine photos of cozy red bedrooms, 
and had a vision in my head as to how I wanted mine to look.
There was only one problem -- 
it seems that my mind's eye must have been a little color blind. 

The first time I saw the red paint on the wall,
I freaked, and was sure the painter ordered the wrong color.
  That Italian Tuscan feel I was going for?
Uh, no.

The room was a blinding scarlet red, 
which would have been ideal, had I been running a brothel, 
but as I was not planning to open one any time soon,
the paint had to go

I had a bit of a hissy fit in front of the painter,
who told me how difficult it would be to paint over it.
But, I persisted.

"Frankly, my dear painter, I don't give a damn -- it's SCARLET! 
Eventually, the color was corrected.

Since then, all of the rooms in my house have been painted over many times. 
 I think we have worked our way through every color in the Benjamin Moore fan deck.

Fresh Paint in the Living Room - Windham Cream by #BenjaminMoore | Ms. Toody Goo Shoes

We were scheduled to start painting in September
and when I say "we," I don't mean us
We hired a painter, because, well, This Is Us......
 neither one of us has the initials DIY.
   
When it came time to choose a color for the living and dining rooms,  
I kept procrastinating. 
 "I can't think about that right now.
If I do, I'll go crazy.
I'll think about that tomorrow."
 

I was afraid of making a costly mistake.
Time went by, and before I knew it, 
I had painted myself into the proverbial corner.
Three days before the painter was coming, I still hadn't picked a color.

The only thing I knew for sure was that I couldn't wait 
for the old color to be gone with the wind.
 I wanted to "lighten up, and go as neutral as possible.
However, my gold dining room drapes looked awful 
with any neutral beige that I considered.
As much as I wanted to get away from the
 gold Concorde Ivory that covered my walls for the last dozen years,
 I had to find something with some yellow tones in it.


Here's the requisite "before" picture of the living room in all it's Concorde Ivory glory.
It's not as yellow as it appears in these photos.
Click here for the true color.

Concorde Ivory by #BenjaminMoore | Ms. Toody Goo Shoes
Living Room Before: Concorde Ivory by Benjamin Moore

 I took all of my fabric swatches to a local paint store,
and decided on Weston Flax, feeling confident in my decision 😳.
The day before the painter arrived, I woke up in a pool of sweat,
the way one does when one knows they are a paint can away from a terrible mistake.

 It was too dark.........
 it was too yellow..........
   it had too much green in it... 

No doubt about it........
It just ain't fittin'.

Fortunately, the paint hadn't been purchased yet,
and under no-pressure-whatsover-so-what-if-the-painter-is-coming-tomorrow 😓,  
I settled on Windham Cream, and hoped for the best.  

Well, fiddle-dee-dee.....
as it was put on the walls, I breathed a half-sigh of relief.

Fresh Paint in the Living Room - Windham Cream by #BenjaminMoore | Ms. Toody Goo Shoes

Yeah, it's still in the yellow family,
but at least it is 50 shades of gold lighter than it was before.   
Click here for the true color.

Fresh Paint in the Living Room - Windham Cream by #BenjaminMoore | Ms. Toody Goo Shoes

Fresh Paint in the Living Room - Windham Cream by #BenjaminMoore | Ms. Toody Goo Shoes

Now that it's all done, and everything has been put back into place,
I'm quite pleased with it.  

Fresh Paint in the Living Room - Windham Cream by #BenjaminMoore | Ms. Toody Goo Shoes

Fresh Paint in the Living Room - Windham Cream by #BenjaminMoore | Ms. Toody Goo Shoes

I'm sure my living room will go through another color transformation sometime in the future,
but probably not until I ditch my current furniture, and start fresh.
I'D DO IT TOMORROW IF I COULD.
I'm looking forward to that.

Fresh Paint in the Living Room - Windham Cream by #BenjaminMoore | Ms. Toody Goo Shoes
I took this photo while I was playing around with the mantel decor.

 
  After all, tomorrow is another day. 

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19 comments:

  1. I love it Amy! You done good.

    It reminds me of the color that was in our previous master bedroom. I never tired of it, even though it was there for over 10 years! Yup.

    When I read that you painted your room red and didn't like it, I cringed. That's SUCH a difficult color to get right, and even harder to paint over! All's well that ends well, and as they say, 'it's just paint'!

    xxx

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  2. Looks beautiful. Been there with the paint color choices. One thing I have learned with paint is you have to put the swatch up for all times of the day and night. Color changes in rooms with different light. I painted once a beautiful light beige color and loved it until night time came and it looked green on my walls. Lesson learned.
    Love your sweet color. Just beautiful.
    Hugs,
    Kris

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  3. When we bought our first house and I was a decorating rookie, I wanted a yellow bedroom. I chose a bright yellow and boy was I shocked when it went on the walls. During the day I would go into our bedroom to turn off the light only to see that it was just the bright paint.

    We had Benjamin Moore Provence in all the rooms until recently - now we have White Heron. Steve wasn't an artist when we moved into this house and we loved the buttery yellow until his paintings looked washed out against it. Now the white makes them pop and we want them to pop off the wall literally when people come to buy his art.

    Your home is so classically beautiful.

    Happy Christmas

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  4. I love the color, Amy. It really looks nice in your home and has just the right tone of creaminess to it. I think it looks GREAT. That is also a wonderful portrait of your family. You look gorgeous!!! xo Diana

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  5. Well Amy I am going to ditto all the comments! Your choice is lovely and compliments the color tones of your upholstered furniture beautifully. Brothel red had me laughing.
    xoxo,
    Vera

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  6. Beautiful! Love the new color, so soft and welcoming. Hope all is well! ~ Denise

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  7. Love the new color. . .but we did just the opposite in Greece. Guess you could say I was seeing red. . .fun post!

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  8. Ahhh, Gorgeous, we had what I called New York Cherry (ice-cream) yellow for a long time---and I loved it. Last time we painted, I was swamped, and handed hubby an old piece of very early Roseville, dead matt green and said match this. I almost died, when i pulled up to the house and this parrot green was glowing on the walls from the street. However----when all the furnishings were in, and all the woodwork was finished in honey pecan---the green was perfect with everything we have. And we will be repainting it again, soon. Sometimes, color is a fickle ...byt......but if you can tame her, LOL, Sandi

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  9. Lovely!! The new color is soft and....well, happy is the best word I think of!! Very cozy, love it!

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  10. It's a perfect fit. Reminds me of my family room. Mine changes shades as the day wears on.

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  11. I love the yellow color family. It's so warm and natural.
    Brenda

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  12. It looks great Amy! My paint colours are 10+ years old and I've been seriously thinking about making some changes - it's a daunting thought! If only one wouldn't need to move all the furniture and all that is stored in them - sigh .... Oh, and we need new furniture too - eek!

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  13. It is lighter and fresher and goes perfectly with your pretty furniture. Great choice!I had a hard time picking a color for my dining room because I was going by color names I thought I wanted....muslin, ecru, ivory. When I finally decided to match the porcelain doorknob to a paint chip I found the perfect color. The name of it was nothing I would have ever picked!

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  14. Amy, I love the new color. I'm also am really liking your fabrics in the room. Such a beautiful family portrait,.

    Cindy

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  15. Love the new color, Amy, you chose well. The whole rooms looks lovely.
    Amalia
    xo

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  16. I love the new color and I see why you choose your furniture in the first place! It is really lovely and stately. We have this debate in our house all the time--when is a good time to buy new furniture when you have perfectly nice things that you have grown tired of ? Is it better to wait until you can change it all at once or incrementally added new pieces? The world may never know. I do know that your new color is a great update if you keep the furnishings or get new!

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  17. It looks so much lighter than before. The colour you chose works very well with your decor while bringing a more peaceful look than before, I think. Well chosen ;)

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  18. Great balls of fire, Miss Amy, it's gorgeous!

    I'm a Benjamin Moore fan too and I dearly loved my red living room at our old house, especially at Christmas, and loved the rain slicker yellow in my kitchen for years. We sold our house there to a son and future daughter-in-law and I would be the first to say that I do love the total transformation she's made there within a cooler color spectrum. That's what's so wonderful about paint, isn't it?

    I couldn't spot your gold dining room curtains in the after pics but I really love the ones in your living room. Aren't you glad that this is all done before the holidays? Perfect background for more family pictures, and memories!

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  19. Thank you for sharing this interesting and informative article, painting with airless spray gun will be faster and more interesting!

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