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We might not play it safe

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We’re thinking of doing something bold. It’s been a long time since we’ve owned a house that we can do whatever we want with. A couple weeks ago, I painted the kids’ trim to finally check their rooms off the Finished list. Last weekend, my husband painted our living room ceiling.

Now, we get to paint the walls.

We originally thought we would go with a sand color, to evoke the feeling we get from the Gulf of Mexico and the ocean. We have seaglass colored lamps and are playing with textures and shapes in our furnishings: a rich cream shag rug, a curved white chair, a blocky sofa and chaise lounge with square edges and linen textured fabric. We wanted the walls to add another layer of depth, but when we painted patches of the sample, we thought, Blah. Boring.

The color blended with the furniture, and it did not show off the beautiful floors that are our favorite part of the house. Nothing popped.

So we pulled out the paint chips again, this time holding them against the warm oak floor; wondering which would best punch up the shapes and textures of furniture; thinking about the deep yellow, green, and blue of the painting we bought a couple years ago; and most importantly, asking what will be interesting?

My husband pointed to a dark grey paint chip. “I like that one,” he said.

This color is not a cloudy sky grey, or a silver grey. This is an almost-black grey.

“That’s really dark,” I said.

I looked at it again on the floor. “It would look amazing against this wood,” I said.

“I don’t know, maybe this one’s a little safer.” I pointed at a lighter grey — more of a pewter. I held it up to the walls, the furniture, the floors. It was definitely safe.

It was definitely boring.

Today I’m taking a flex day. I work tomorrow (Saturday), so I’m taking today off to write, read with a kitty on my lap, have lunch with my husband, and go to the paint store. I’m going to get a sample of the dark dark grey. It’s a bold move. Kind of scary. Definitely not safe.

It is the one option that I’m excited about. I can’t wait to see how it looks.

14 thoughts on “We might not play it safe”

  1. We played safe with our first house wanting to paint over the existing grey with a lighter sahde and would add colour with furnishing accessories. We couldn’t find a colour we liked, so opted for a syringe of ‘charcoal’ and a large tin of white emulsion. It was perfect……… a perfect match as to what was already on the wall. Go for it. Be bold!

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    1. That’s exactly what we did in Glasgow. I saw this fire engine red through the window, across the courtyard of our second floor neighbour’s apartment, and I thought – we could do that too.
      Well, that wasn’t the right choice for us, but it worked for them. We painted over ours to a lovely rich sandy colour, but I knew, every time we walked into that room, underneath beat the heart of hot-rocks red!

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  5. Do it. When we moved into our house in Albuquerque it was all white and with the constant sun outside it was just blinding. I wanted a warm cozy den where we could hide away from the blazing sunlight so we went with dark reds, burnt oranges, and chocolate browns. I love it so much. It’s been 10 years and I have no desire to change the colors. It is time to freshen up the paint job though 😀

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  8. Dark colours are a lot darker on the wall than on a swatch and may take several coats to cover if you don’t like it after all. Can you figure out a way to test? Maybe using a computer and photos? It will also depend on the light and climate. Sometimes it can be nice to not paint all the walls the same. One dark wall can set things off nicely.

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  10. I have a deep red accent wall in my house. Right up until it dried the wall looked like a slaughterhouse crime scene; thankfully, it dried in more a a wine color. Or, so I’m told.

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  11. Do you have a lot of light? If so, I would like it with your light colored furnishings. You would have a lot of options for contrasting colors which could provide change without a lot of work or cost.

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