Saturday, October 31, 2009

Help! I can't decide!!!

I've decided to re-do (somewhat) our bedroom. I purchased a gift box from Homegoods, gosh, a long time ago. I'm using it as my color inspiration and decorative direction. Those of you who watch HGTV's Color Splash with David Bromstad will know what I mean. This one has a street in France of a Flower shop... Mostly in blues, greens, browns, and ivory. I'm going for the romantic French country look. I love these boxes from Homegoods. I buy them all the time. First it was mostly hat boxes they carried, round, and stackable. Then, the selection just blossomed. They now have rectangle shapes that are also nesting type boxes, so they are stackable when you buy more than one. Or they are beautiful alone. Wonderful for storing so many things. They also have started making funky shapes like wine bottle boxes, suitcase style, file box style, and I believe I've even seen a "lunchbox" style. I usually pick one or two up when I find one that I like the pattern or style to use for my shop to make gift "baskets". I like using anything other than wicker. I think we ladies past the age of 40-something know what I mean. You collect a zillion and one wicker baskets... and can only find just so many things to use them for. I thought it would be nice to use these boxes for holding the gift items.... and it can be part of the gift as well.

Anyhow, here's the pic of my color inspiration box.

I should have taken a closer pic of just the box because it's so pretty, but I didn't think about that. My camera was forcing me to use settings that I was not used to and I was getting frustrated. But, the changes from "easy" and "auto" to actually using different settings changed the colors dramatically. The new settings I used show the colors more true. Easy and Auto are washed out quite a bit... especially when a flash gets involved. Easy and Auto are just settings on the dial.... makes me think of "Normal is just a setting on the dryer"... :)

I went to the local hardware store and grabbed as many paint swatches as I dared without fear they would tackle me on my way out the door. They sell Glidden paint, and now I'm having a hard time choosing my color for the walls and ceiling. First I wanted to do a soft medium toned green, not really interested in blue, but then I thought about a hue of brown. There are so many luscious colors out there, I'm even changing my mind about a blue.... but more of a turquoise hue... can you see my dilemma? Somewhere along the line I became this woman afraid of commitment :) But then I tell myself, it's only paint... and I can always change it. Besides, we are eventually going to renovate the bedrooms upstairs, so this is mostly a temporary fix to a really ugly room. But, if I wait for the "renovations" to take place upstairs, I'll be too old to care. Also, whatever we do to the room, I will reuse the drapes/curtains and bedding and pillows in the new room (if they aren't dry rotted by then... :)

These paint strips are the ones I've "narrowed my choices" to. You should see the stack I sorted these out of. This is showing the greens-blues. I'm fairly certain I won't use any blue. I'm so tired of blue. As an accent color is fine, but not interested in painting my whole room that color.

This is showing the blues/browns. Don't you think one of those medium browns would look scrumptious on the walls?

Yes, there is a piece of material in the middle of it all, but try as I might I cannot (no matter how I set the camera settings) get the true color and nature of the material, especially the greens. I purchased the whole bolt at JoAnn Fabrics. I had a 50% off coupon the entire amount that was left on the roll. What should have cost me well over $100 only cost a little over $50. I fell in love with the fabric. It's a floral almost like a damask, has flat color fabric and shiny fabric, and the colors of brown beige in the background, the horizontal lines are a very dark olive green, and the flowers are this amazing swirl of blues and greens. I will be making curtain swags and valances as well as decorative pillows and shams, and a cover for my dressing table bench seat.


Does anyone have any opinions? My husband says he doesn't care, you know how guys are. When I ask him what he means by "doesn't care", he says that he'll be fine with whatever I do because he trusts me to do a fantastic job. He knows that I will make it a comfortable room for him too, considering his personality to express in what I choose to do. Now there's a confidence booster! What a great guy I've got!

Have a great day. I welcome any advice or inspirations from you. Please don't hesitate to write me something of what you're thinking! Invite your friends to take a gander and share an opinion or two.

Hugs,
Penny Suzie

2 comments:

just a little bit shabby said...

Penny,
I like a soft teal or soft beige best. It looks like the fabric has the teal in it but I would go a little bit lighter than what's in the fabric. Either that or go darker for drama. It kind of depends on the size of the room.
Hope this helps.
Hugs and more hugs,
sandy
PS Vegetable beef soup!

Ginger said...

Hi Penny:
I have such a hard time with color. I can't picture it on the wall. So I tend to go too light.
I like all these colors. I'm a big help, huh?
When I ask my hubby for help about paint color, he says the same thing as yours...I don't care.