A splash of color

So I love painting, but I've always been really cautious of colors because, well.... who wants their house looking like this.

Or this

Or this

Ok you get the picture.  I was scared man.  You don't mess around with walls.  Paint isn't as cheap as they say.


So anyway, when we moved into this house we had this great glass topped table with an aluminum frame (which I sadly can't find a picture of).  It was gray and black and gold.  So when it came time to do away with the wretched eggshell white walls of new sheetrock we decide to go with a contemporary look.  A medium gray color with black accents.  You can see a bit of it in this pic, right behind the kids drooling over cake. 

So our dining room and living room are connected by a large entry.  Over the years the living room evolved into a very cozy place to hang out.  As it should be.

Please disregard the mess.  And ya know, the slew of bodies lounging around.  But hey, it's a comfy room, we like it there.  The walls are covered with pictures of moose and deer and bears and lots and lots of oak things.  
So you can see my problem.  Comfy woodsey living room segues into...... black and gray kitchen?  What?


I never could figure out what color to paint the dining room to help it blend more until one day while driving I happened to see into someone's window (really, I was in my car and not peering in people's windows nose to the glass stalking paint choices).  And saw a house with this marvelousely dangerous deep red color.  It got my little gears turning.  Could I pull it off?


So yesterday I drug Craig to Menards for paint.  Craig hates to paint.  And by hates it I mean he'd rather see the house fall down in shambles than paint it. He hates painting and because he's a guy he couldn't care less if there's color on the walls and couldn't tell you the difference between eggplant and...... well, I don't know what color eggplant is either, but that's beside the point.


So Today I got up early and decided it was painting day.  Of course that meant that Craig would help me, because he feels guilty if he doesn't.  I was all set to do it myself though.


Halfway through I realized the black chair rail was scuffed up and sent Craig out for some black paint.  while he was gone I had to run to the bathroom and just knew Nate was going to destroy the place.  I came up to find him, hands dripping in paint, fingerpainting the walls.  I really should have taken pictures but I was so mad I could spit.  At least he painted the RIGHT walls. So after cleaning my child, the floor, and the legs of the table off we finished without a hitch and ended up with this.

I'm happy with it.  It still kind of has a little bit of a contemporary feel but definitely warms up the granite in the table.  I decided to keep the black accents and am absolutely thrilled with the outcome.  Go color!

ugly paintjobs courtesy of www.uglyhousephotos.com