Tuesday, August 24, 2010

who knew?

I grew up thinking white walls were a cop out.  White walls meant you couldn't think of anything more creative, or, more likely, that you were renting.  Since buying my first house some 25 years ago I have rarely had white walls in any room of my home.  Right now I have a soft goldish-tan color in my living room.  I chose it because it's a teeny-tiny room in a teeny-tiny house (and don't get me wrong - I LOVE teeny-tiny houses), and because the color matches the couch, which I thought would help it (the couch) recede and make it look smaller and the room look larger.  I may very well have succeeded.  BUT. I've never liked it.  The room doesn't get much natural light, thanks to a ginormous oak in the front yard and this color seems too dark.  So I've been on the lookout for a new color.  In my search for inspiration I looked at lots of my favorite bloggers homes and through all my file photos, and guess what?   Virtually every room I've picked as a favorite has...white, or very nearly white, walls! So this weekend I'll be off to pick up some white paint samples.  If you have a favorite creamy white and would care to share it with me, I'd appreciate it!  I'm thinking I'd like to repaint 3 rooms in the house this year. Wouldn't it be funny if I end up with white walls in the whole house?


Bosworth Hoedemaker via Houzz

Austin Patterson Disston Architects via Houzz
via A Bloomsbury Life

I just noticed something else all these rooms have in common:  built-in bookshelves.  Might have to plant this idea into the bf's brain, somehow!

5 comments:

  1. my favorite white paint is bm simply white. the interior of my house has been dipped in it. everything is simply white. and i simply love it.

    hmmm, i need a couple of custom bookcases too.

    ~janet

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  2. I just found your blog today and I'm so glad!
    Your kitchen is beautiful. We remodeled ours about four or five years ago - it was one of our best investments.
    I like your Sunset list - I may need to print it out to remind myself to do those things.

    Adrienne

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  3. Hi Adrienne! I've been following your blog for some time now and I'm so happy you found mine! Have you posted pics of your kitchen? Maybe I need to go back farther in your archives! If you haven't I would love to see it. I'm happy to say I do just about everything on that Sunset list, but even if you only do one or two, that's a lot better than nothing! Thanks for stopping by. Karin

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  4. I too always felt that white walls were boring. Every time I moved to a new home I painted, exploring different color pallets. A couple of months ago, I moved into a small two bedroom house and new that there was only one color that would do it justice; white. I've got new white walls and I'm loving them! :-)

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  5. I think white is as brave a choice as any other color. There are a million whites and as Janet recommended, Simply White is a nice neutral white. But the same color isn't going to look good in every home. The light and, if you have close neighbors, the light reflected off their house, will really affect how the color looks in your house. I think a good place to start is to pick a color that you like and seems to be the right tone for your house and then go to the lightest shade of that color in the deck. Good luck!

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