Turning A Homework Room into A Sweet Retreat

During the month of March, our long-time partner, Ace Hardware is helping consumers discover a new love for color through a month-­long interactive paint experience called 31 Days of Color. Every day unveils a new “Color of the Day” selected from Ace’s exclusive Valspar and Clark+Kensington paint lines and today's the day we get to unveil our color (plus pass on deets about a huge giveaway at the end)!

While there are still plenty of little spots in our house that could use some color, we love paying it forward when we can and I really wanted to do something bigger. I immediately thought of my sister in law's homework room:

Chris's brother and his family live just a few minutes away from us and every time Heather (my sister-in-law) and I get together we are always discussing upcoming projects she has in mind--I love to pop over there and help out when I can. While their house is absolutely gorgeous and top-to-bottom organized (you saw their dining nook here, their jaw-dropping laundry room here and their music room here) she has been working hard to inject a little more personality and color into their place. This homework spot is the most functional use of a narrow space (ever!) but it was in serious need of a little facelift to keep the homework time more happy.

After going over swatches with them, we landed on Clark+Kensington's Sweet Retreat. It's a pretty blue/green with warm undertones and a hint of gray to keep it classy.

Initially, Heather thought we should maybe just paint one wall since it was such a small room and she didn't want the color to overpower the space, but I explained that painting the room all one color would actually make it feel bigger! Also, if you're ever worried about a color overpowering a small room--definitely go for something with a hint of gray in it. This muted color jived well with the tan cabinets, countertop and floor and because of that hint of gray (instead of straight blue or green) it didn't get too neon in the homework room when the wall colors started bouncing off one another. It's pretty perfect in here:

We knocked out the walls in just a couple hours and then spray painted the chairs she had in place a glossy white to brighten the room even more. We did a few simple switches to the decor, too opting for a wall clock instead of the table one she had to help free up desk space while still monitoring screen time.

I've also learned that little details like plants or flowers (these are not real but real adorable) and photos really help motivate me to keep areas clean--so we included some of those on the desk, along with a little vase of pencils, too.

In the cabinets and drawers, Heather has everything categorized and labeled so there was no real need for a major overhaul--this was purely the power of paint.

As much as I love a good neutral, there's no doubt this room needed color on the walls.  For more color stories and inspiration, you can visit ThePaintStudio.com starting at 12pm EST every day in March to check out the color of the day along with expert tips and inspiration.

Now, we usually have a giveaway connected to our Ace project each month and this month, they are doing something extra big. You can enter the 31 Days of Color Sweepstakes daily for a chance to win a$10,000 paint makeover and daily $50 gift cards, too. Ace is also giving away free samples of the Color of the Day to the first 1,000 online entrants at ThePaintStudio.com!

Is there a room in your place that needs a bit of color!?

We’re excited to be collaborating with Ace Hardware as a part of their Ace Blogger Panel again this year. Ace has provided us with compensation and the materials necessary to complete this project and strive to be as generous with our readers (thanks, Ace!) All opinions are our own.