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Paint Makeover: Parent's house

November 15, 2010

The last time I spent a few days at my parent's house was back in June.  Chris was putting on a conference and he would be gone for a week (sound familiar?), but I kept plenty busy.  I decided to makeover my parent's family room.  Here is a before picture:

Okay, it wasn't taken RIGHT before I broke out the paint cans, but I forgot to take a picture.  I am such an amateur.  This was actually at my baby shower, but it gives a nice span of the whole buttery room.  Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with a good buttery, egg-noggy paint on the wall--in the right space.  Maybe one with some white and celery-colored accents, but since my dad was insistent on keeping all of his oak--oak, the wall color HAD to change.  A couple other things: the two chairs were completely blocking the bookcase and had no visual access to the tv.  And the extra long couch was taking up a lot of entry room into the space.  The furniture needed to be moved around.  Also you can't see them that well, but there were vertical blinds sucking all the comfort out of that room on the right wall.

This is when my parent's started freaking out a little bit.  Next to the yellow, the darker gray paint color that I picked for the fireplace wall, looked close to black.  I was a little unsure myself, but I was confident in the whole vision and I kept going for it.  
Once the whole back wall got painted, everything starting looking a lot more calm.  Onward to the other walls!
I picked a lighter gray for the other walls.  It creates an elongated effect, but keeps things light and non-dungeony....not convinced?
What about now?  Such a difference, right?  I also added very few accents, like that painting of the Poppies to add a red pop and the matching red pillow on the couch.  Also, those white twigs in the corner from Ikea and the gray-ish leaf-print pillow on the couch really amp up the nature feel the room had taken on.  
A large mirror over the couch makes the room look even bigger.  We also moved the larger couch to that wall, the two chairs opposite of it, and the smaller rocker loveseat opposite the fireplace.  Everything flows a lot easier now.  My parents were ready to buy new, updated furniture--but the current stuff still had a few more years left in it.  To bring it up a notch, we did use a staple gun to staple all of the ruffles underneath.  It made everything less frilly and more classy. 
The big difference in this room--paint color.  *Sigh*  I will be happy when my renting days are through and I can throw paint on a wall whenever I want.  However,  this morning I made an online purchase to spice up some of my walls without paint--stay tuned and get excited.
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  1. You're quite the little decorator! Great job updating the space! I'm obsessed with gray right now...so I LOVE the choice of wall color...nice work.

  2. That looks so much better! I do love that mustard color but it just depends on the amount and the right space. cute in a bathroom maybe?

    I'm way excited and I'm staying tuned for more updates!

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