For the past several weeks, Dave and I have been trying to choose a new color for the walls in our family room. From the first time I saw the pale blue walls, I knew the blue had to go. Although the color was part of a pallet chosen by the decorators at Lowe’s and marketed as such on a little card, pale blue didn’t seem an appropriate color for a family room.
And, even after we moved in and placed our furnishings, which all complemented the blue nicely, I was determined that at some point in the future, we’d have to choose a more neutral color, more fitting for the space.
After almost four years of my griping about the wall color, we went to Lowe’s and had a couple of samples mixed to test on our walls. Dave painted swatches of the two taupey-beiges in a couple of places to carefully consider different light plays in the room and we spent many days comparing the two to our room only to decide that neither were the “right” color. I went back to Lowe’s, picked up a couple more chips and we decided to try a pale grey.
One morning I bought my sample and tried it in another spot on the wall. After weeks of pondering, we were fairly certain the grey was what we wanted, although we’d have to change the picture over the fireplace to bring a little more color. Fairly certain of our decision, we determined to paint the room the next time we had a free weekend.
As always, our life is pretty full and our weekends especially seem to be loaded with stuff. For the past two weekends, we’ve had houseguests, which is the best kind of stuff to have. With the taupey-beige and grey test spots still on the blue walls, conversation with both sets of guests naturally turned to our wall color. First, it was my sister Barb who said she’d always liked the blue and didn’t understand why we’d want to change it. Then, last weekend, my friend Lori, who is an interior designer, after careful consideration rendered her opinion that indeed the blue worked in that room. The one thing I was right about was we needed more color over the fireplace.
Isn’t that just how it goes? All the while I knew there was something not quite right in that room but instead of looking at one minor correction, I was convinced that a drastic change had to be made. Truth be told, I actually like the blue. My motivation for changing the color was that it seemed inappropriate. What’s that all about? I didn’t worry about appropriateness when I painted the bathroom in our last house purple or our kitchen turquoise. Who was I trying to please?
Anyone who knows me knows that I tend to march to the beat of my own drum, so why would I even worry about what anyone else thinks about my choices in decor? Sometimes I think those of us who appear to march to our own beat are partially just plain unable to catch the beat of ground and march along so we make the best of our awkwardness. We can’t keep step so we create our own cadence. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, just a thing.
So, our next free weekend, I’ll be repainting the family room the same color it already is and searching for the perfect picture to put over the fireplace. Who knows, it may be something I already have. Wouldn’t that be a kick?