living room painting

It's amazing what a little color can do to transform a room.  When Joe and I bought our house, we only intended to live here for 3-5 years. We were hoping to buy when prices were low, make some payments and sell for enough to help out a little with the downpayment on our next home. We decided to leave as much of the paint and general condition of our house as close to original as possible so we wouldn't be too bold for a potential buyer. 

We have lived in our house for four years now and it looks like we will be here a while so time to settle in I guess. Besides, we couldn't match the current paint color so the walls were getting pretty dirty. 

Here's a look at our living room last week:

I bought that picture from World Market during a 50% off sale and thought it looked much bigger in the store and I haven't loved it at home. I used to have 8-10 black and white photos covering the wall and got tired of it. Once I took them down, everything looked overly simple so I ignored my instincts that it looked plain and let it be. 

Rufus, AKA "my shadow" made it into most of the pics ... he's such a ham. 

And now... the new color and layout!!

I am completely obsessed with this color. I didn't edit these photos in any way but I would say that the color is slightly more blue in real life. The color is Benjamin Moore "coventry gray". I was at bunco last week and a friend had this color in her dining room. She casually mentioned the color and when I was in the store looking at colors it happened to be on the swatch I pulled = FATE! I promised Joe that I would only paint small places so we could live with the colors and do the actual work next weekend.

I don't think he was all that surprised when I decided to go ahead and finish the whole project that day. I never leave something unfinished for long, I can't stand it!

The artwork featured behind the couch is by a local artist, Mary Margaret Brinkley. My mom bought this for me for my birthday. I was completely obsessed with this picture from Ballard Designs. And by obsessed, I mean that it is my iphone background so I look at it all day, every day. It's pricey for a giclee print though. And the one my mom bought is even bigger and more importantly... it's an original so there's not another one like it anywhere. 

I love to sit in my chair sipping my earl grey and dreaming of diving into the serene lake. Alas, Joe has the news on and relaxation is over.  

See the little bowl with fruit in it? That's some of our Pepper Place farmer's market bounty. I woke Joe up Saturday morning with the promise of a fun day. He didn't want to go to the market but I begged and begged until he gave in. Emmy was in a slightly better mood and we all really enjoyed walking around and checking out local produce. Joe thought it would be expensive and brought a "budget" of $40... but it was actually cheaper than the grocery store! We got 1 pound of local honey for $7 and 6 tomatoes, 7 peaches, 5 zucchini and a bunch of okra for $13. That left us with $20 for going back next week!

The painting was so much more work than we anticipated. It always is. We knew we would hate it but Emmy spent so much of the day just whining and crying that it made the work so much more frustrating. We didn't blame her for getting bored with us but somedays we just can't accommodate her and Joe and I handled it pretty well seeing as not long ago a nuisance like that would send us over the top with each other.

There is another piece of artwork in our home that I don't think gets nearly enough credit. It's also a local artist's work. I picked it up in Homewood as a gift for Joe. The artist signed it right there and explained to me how he got into art and what all is in each picture. He is really wonderful and I wanted to get a good frame for Joe. DAMN, MICHAELS... 50% off is a joke! I remember this one costing $50 for the signed print and $200 for the frame. But, it is beautiful. We had Joe's sword from Scotland hanging next to it but decided Emmy is getting too curious for medieval decor to be safe. We moved it upstairs where Joe's "man cave/movie room" is getting a makeover. That's his birthday present from me, I purchased some poster from Etsy and can't wait to post pictures!

You can buy this one here. 

I received the most amazing birthday present from Joe and my dad. I finally got a big girl camera!! It's a Canon Rebel EOS Ti3. So far, it's extremely easy to use and takes AMAZING pictures. I plan to do a post about it and take some fun pictures of Emmy. I just need to stop spending my weekend on so many other projects!