Color Makes Such A Difference!!

Right before vacation, I was painting like crazy! There's nothing like having company (even if it was my kids that hadn't been home in MONTHS!) to get me motivated to finally paint the dining room and living room! It turned out sooo good!! But first let's just take a quick look at what it's looked like for the past 4 years....

Can you say boring? Cave like? I keep asking myself... "I liked that?" Hmmmm.  Tastes definitely change!

This year I got rid of the cave like drapes and put up 2 1/2 inch faux wood blinds.  This definitely brightened it up!  You can read about that glorious day HERE. Just doing this made me smile!  :)

Now for the paint!  Hubby and I struggled to find the perfect color. We found the perfect blue for two of our walls..... Beach Foam by Behr.  Then we got several samples of a beigeish color. We settled on a Natural Wicker by Glidden. The blue came out beautiful!  We love it soooo much!  We feel like we are looking outside at blue skies.  Then I started to cut in the Natural Wicker....

YUCK! I knew with the first swipe of the edger.... Poop.... it looked like baby poop smeared on the walls. I hated it!  Hate is a very strong word, but I couldn't stand it! Immediately, I got out my stack of paint chips. There had to be something in there that would work!  I started putting up some grays.  I found one I kinda liked. The next day I went and got a sample.  Before Hubby came home from work, I had some of it on the wall. Hubs agreed that the poop color had to go. We were thinking it would be like sand with the blue skies. Uh... no... didn't quite look like that.

Anyway.... the gray I picked was too "blue" so we went back and tried to find the best "true" light gray.  We ended up with Valspar's Polar Star. Gorgeous, right?

I can't clearly explain the joy joy feelings I have over these painted walls.  Hubby and I just love it! It was looking pretty rough a few days before vacation....

That's better....

I ended up painting the mantle shelf, I couldn't stand it black against the blue wall.  One of these days we are planning on re-facing the fireplace and making a real mantle. But for now...
I am soooo HAPPY!
I didn't paint the TV wall.  There wasn't enough time and it's going to be quite a job pulling the console away and all the wires behind it. I'll get there. Oh, and don't mind the yellowing clock.... That was a "fail" that needs to be re-done.....  :P

I ended up leaving the screws in that hold the curtain rods.  I haven't decided whether I'm going to put up some sort of curtain in the living room.  There's still so much to do in here.  Coffee table and lamps need some paint. I'd like to recover the chairs and add some colorful pillows.
Our kitty, Arwen, had to get in the pic... She's so funny.  When I pull the camera out, she gets nosy.

The dining room is my favorite... Can you see what I mean about seeing blue skies?? Ahhh.....

Of course little nosy is in there again....
Did you notice I changed the dining room light fixture.  I'd had enough of that 80's glass and brass thing.  I didn't exactly change everything out.  Eventually, I'd like to change the chain to a pendant pole, but for now I just took off the glass shade and jimmied the new shade on.  It's temporary, but it works for now.  I'd like to paint the shade or cover it or stencil it.  I'm not sure yet.

I really feel like the Lord has encouraged me and helped me to snap out of my "funk".  I feel like I'm getting back to normal and ready to start something new.  Something fun... something colorful! I'll keep you guessing...

Blessings,