When you first enter our house, there’s a small room to the immediate right that has 5 great windows. We had no initial plans for this room since there was so much other space to tackle first, but when we (Greta, Charly and I) started spending a lot of time in here usually sitting on the floor talking, looking out the window waiting for guests or waiting for Chris to get home from work we started thinking about this yellow room a little bit more.
A little while ago, I teased this photo that we had painted the room green:
But the truth is, we had only painted one wall. We have experimented with a lot of photo backdrops for our halloween party, and this year we thought why not just paint a wall?? It seemed just as easy as tacking yards and yards of fabric to the ceiling and definitely cheaper. We decided to do a dark green and drape some creepy cloth over it to make it even more spooky for the party.
The initial color Chris came home with wasn’t quite dark enough or green enough, so I went back to the paint store and had them add a little more black and a little more green until I was satisfied. This was the custom formula we landed on in case you’re interested:
Now for the curveball that we didn’t see coming. We liked the color so much that we ended up painting the whole room in the hue after all. Ha! The green, which we are affectionally calling “Reading Room Green” is a nice departure from the taupe that we have in the main area surrounding it.
It’s rich and gem-like and can definitely hold its own in the small room with a lot of windows. We moved our Lily sofa that was in the great room until recently (but used to live in our old living room) in here and it’s the perfect size. We hung the large photographs of our hometowns (Pittsburgh and Rexburg) and are still on the hunt for a lamp and small round coffee table.
Other plans in here include tearing up the carpet and laying hardwoods and adding wall to wall shelving on the far wall, so this can indeed become the reading room. Our books are anxious to get out of boxes and we are anxious to stop going out in the garage to look for a certain one, so we’re hoping the shelving project will happen in the next month.
For now, we’re happy to have a place to sit and look out the windows and chat and, of course, some bold color on the walls. We love mixing light and dark paint colors in our home but I never knew I was a green paint lover. And I am a lover! Go figure.
Hi Julia-
I know this post is old, but I was wondering if you used a primer before painting the room a darker color or if you had one mixed in?
Thanks!
We just used a primer and paint in one!
Can’t wait to see the Haloween photos! Also, I’m loving the color. Today I posted on my blog about plans I have to paint a space in my home a similar color!
That color! It’s so fun and sophisticated and fancy. Perfect.
I like the color, but even more that one of you grew up in Pittsburgh! Makes me love your blog that much more :) I’m a Pittsburgh born and raised and transplanted to Philadelphia, but love those roots!
I love a reading room! Our office is such an eclectic mix of bookshelves, art, and color. I can see the beginnings of something great here…