My color scheme works!

Okay, I’m no Divine Designer like Candice Olsen. I’m much more of a Design on a Dime kind of gal. But I have to say I’m pretty darned proud of my latest decorating efforts.

Let’s just say that we’ve finally gone beyond wallpaper and Dover White to fully embrace color in our home decorating. This is quite a departure for the color-challenged such as Danny and I. (Just look at the clothes in our closet—all khaki, black, navy, white and the occasional French blue for him and pink for me.) But we’re willing to learn and willing to make a mistake or two along the way.

So far so good.

This project marks the realization that you get what you pay for when it comes to paint. No more $10 gallons of flat paint in this house. No siree, I’m now a preferred Sherwin-Williams customer. I swear by its paint and I’ll not use anything else in my house. Plus, it’s a Cleveland-based company and you’ve got to support the locals.

We’re in a painting frenzy because we decided to take advantage of a Home Depot carpet sale and get new carpet up the steps and in the upstairs bedrooms (except for my office). We already were planning to update the boys’ rooms, but new carpet in the hallway also required a desperately needed coat of fresh paint in the stairway, foyer and up and down hallways. Why is that area such a drag to paint? So we’ll move from a sage-y kind of green color to a warm, rich tan (Toasty Tan) in the center of our house.

I’m hoping it says, “Welcome to our warm and friendly home where the children are well-behaved, the dog never jumps on guests, the food is exquisite and the conversation divine.” Okay, that’s a lot to expect from a coat of paint, so maybe I’ll just shoot for warmth.

They say (I’m not sure who ‘they’ are, though a friend of mine says that whenever her mom invokes ‘they say’ she is really referring to Matt and Katie) that one should paint the interior of your home with colors of similar richness. And so I’ve done just that. I’m feeling downright bold. I even pulled out an olive-gray color for my half-bath downstairs, at which point Danny’s eyes glazed over and he said, “Yeah, Wen, looks nice (read: “Please don’t ask me to look at anymore paint swatches.”).”

Anyway, time is short today because I also have a lot of work to do and Ryan’s first football scrimmage is at 4:15. But I just wanted to pause for a moment and admire my handiwork.

Had to chuckle on Sunday. My husband’s brother-in-law is something of a throwback to the Fifties. I don’t mean that in a derogatory way. He’s very kind and loving and lucky to have my sister-in-law as his wife. Anyway, he stopped over to pick up our nephew and found me in my painting clothes, lugging drop clothes and paint jugs (and aren’t those new plastic jugs just nifty?) and Danny cooking dinner. I’m sure he must think we’ve got it ALL backwards.

Enough of that, now I’ve got to run and make more money to pay off all my decorating expenses.