Saturday, November 14, 2009

Blah blah beige....

I've tried to like it people, really I have. But Beige? It gives me the blahs.
I've given it my best shot in every form: Tavern taupe, Sand, Beautiful beige....you name it, I have probably painted it on some wall in one of our houses.
Lest I offend someone, don't get me wrong here.....I have walked into umpteen hundred homes all painted with some form of beige and thought they were beautiful. Hence, I've tried to re-create that beauty-ness in my home.
But it's just not working for me.

Maybe it comes from growing up in a nothing-but-white home (well, okay....unless you count the dusty rose/country blue floral wall-paper from time to time), and living in several stark white apartments.

Beige is not too far off from white. It's kind of a non-color color.

I remember a couple of times as teenagers giving our parents a gift of home-make-over...poor mans style. One Christmas (or Mothers day, I don't remember which), my brothers and I thought it would be a great idea to pool all of our minimum wage job earnings together and fix up the upstairs bathroom that was starting to look quite dilapidated - a project we knew my parents would have loved to do, but couldn't afford. So, off to the home project store we went. Kmart, actually. Looking for paint. We brought home a can of stark "bright white". I did see the rows of different color chips there. But, I walked right on by - I thought they were for rich people.

No joke.

I figured we couldn't afford color.
(no one ever mentioned that color was FREE!)

So, white it was. And stark-bright-white that bathroom was painted.
I'm not sure how on earth my parents allowed us to do what we did, trying to fix things up. Looking back, I'm absolutely positive our work would not have qualified for any home-show awards, and in fact - coming from teenagers who had no direction, and absolutely no idea what we were doing - the work was I'm sure sub-par at best.

Anyway, I digress.
The point is, I think my life has been filled with an over-dose of white.

This basement of ours has been a "mochachino" version of taupe, (once again....really trying to love the neutral-ness of it). However, I decided that what I was really hoping for was a fun teenage-slash-family-hang-out-sort-of-a-room. So, just for the record - here's what the family room has looked like:






Can you say BLAH. And Blech. And Boring.




....and now drumroll please.....???? (Well, actually, it's not COMPLETELY finished yet, so I shouldn't ask for the WHOLE drumroll.....just a half drum roll.....a drumroll-in-progress-sort-of-a-drumroll).....







Too much......or getting better? I know it may be drastic for some, but - me thought the room was a bit pizazz deficient.
With any luck this project will be done by weeks end and I'll post real true live finished product pictures.

Hooray for color....I think.

9 comments:

Mechelle said...

I love it!!

Jewels said...

How Fun, I must admit I am a boring Beige girl but not because I love it...because color is scary to me!! Congrats on being brave, I love it!

Lara said...

I am so proud of you, Ange. I love color as you can probably tell from my house and I will be painting my master bedroom a similar shade here shortly. Congrats! I love it!

Maren said...

I love it! Color is so great.

Sherry said...

As I was reading your post I was thinking GREEN!!! I loved how you had your house painted down here! I'm boring because I don't know how to make colored walls work. Love it!

Stef said...

Very nice. The color adds so much to the room. Good eye.

The Cheatham Family said...

Very cute! I really like it. It's fun to actually see your photo's I probably couldn't have imagined it as pretty as it is. I often dream about what I want to do with our future home. I'm thinking I want to have a red/yellow sunflower type theme in our future kitchen. I really like the color sage as a living room color. Color can bring alot of warmth to the home. I haven't experimented with color in our own home yet, but have seen some really cute homes. I really like the country living/ cabin interior design home magazines. They have some fun decor and ideas. Rod Works & Tai Pan Trading have some amazing accents and home decor. I'm thrilled that Tai Pan Trading might be coming to Utah County. :) Ange you really have an Interior Design Gift.

APeck said...

I don't know how but I came across your blog. Anyway, I LOVE color! You can't go wrong. White is for blinds and towels that don't have children in the home. Love it! You can't go wrong with color and the green...is wonderful! Dan hates to do the work, but every room in our house is a different color. Once you go, you'll never turn back. Angilee Peck

Blackeyedsue said...

Ange, it is beautiful! I love the colors you picked! You've totally inspired me. I came home from your house and mentally picked out new colors for every wall of my house...we have boring beige and I miss the color my former home had. Now, if I could only convince the hubster I need new couches to go with the new wall colors.