Sunday, February 17, 2013

We Have Achieved a Pink Living Room

Well, the flu did get me, and then we painted our living room pink.  It's nice to be back on the blog!

 
 
Around the time Genevieve was born, we painted the living room a mushroom color, which I chose because it was between brown and gray and might go with anything.  It did look nice with the creamy trim and the stone fireplace.  My  husband and I figured we'd get a vision for the living room sooner or later.

Then we got our twin red sofas and I sewed chartreuse drapes.  The mushroom walls did not assist the aura of the room, you know?  We wanted a wall color that played nicely with the drapes and kept the focus on the red sofas.  Pink!  Very pale pink, like the inside a seashell.





My husband and I, with help from friends and family, have done all our own painting over the years on our fixer-upper.  We save our home-repair dollars for the projects we don't have the expertise for.

But there was a lot of choreographing to get this room painted, let me tell you.  We arranged babysitting part of the time.  I made sure the freezer was stocked with easy food to keep our morale up and dinner for our Sunday guests.  I made a list of every task that needed to be done, what day it needed to be done on, and possibly how long that task might take.  The idea was to have the children around as little wet paint as possible, and to have the room torn apart for 2 days only.



We did it.

We're exhausted. 

The living room looks fabulous. 

But I must say, as we applied the first coat of paint (Benjamin Moore's "Gentle Blush"), the living room looked scarily pink, like a little girl's nursery. We were dismayed, but we painted doggedly on and reminded ourselves how rigorously we had chosen our color. Amazingly enough, once the dropcloths were put away and the furniture and drapes were back in place, the pink settled down into the background where we wanted it.



We were only planning to touch up the trim, but our standard trim color (Benjamin Moore's Navajo White) suddenly looked sickly green next to the pink; we wanted creamy white.  So I made an emergency trip to our paint store, got their expert help, and we painted the living room trim Mascarpone.  Much better.

11 comments:

Hazel said...

Nice! Glad it worked out how you wanted- I've done that with paint, and you wonder if you should keep painting or panic and change halfway through.

Hope you're feeling better now. I guess hoping you'd miss it was optimistic!

Polly said...

I had started to get worried that the flu had dragged you down!

A pink living room. It's like my dream. I am SO enthusiastic about this. First, I don't think there are many husbands who would be okay with pink (and for NO GOOD REASON except that they think it's, I don't know, too girlie). Major props to Mr Thrift for being a visionary. Major props to you both for the end result--it looks GREAT!!!!!! I LOVE IT! I love a pink living room....it is so unusual and wonderful!! I don't think I would have ever contemplated it. I LOVE it.

Second, we also do our own painting. Much thriftier than paying for it. Sometimes it means it takes a while to get it done, but that's alright!

Glad you're back on your feet and the major painting project is done! That feels good, I know!

august said...

How in the world did you get your husband to let you paint the living room pink?! I love it!!

Margo said...

Tiffany, he's an unusual man with an eye for design and style (he's an architect). He looks good in pink and has several pink shirts. And I have to say, the room does not look feminine - nothing else is pink in there - but rather just rosy and lively and inviting.

jenny_o said...

I kept thinking the silence on your blog was not a good sign :)

Glad you're through with that, and also finished with your painting. It looks beautiful! You (both of you) have a good eye for colour.

jodi inkenbrandt said...

It look so good!! And bummer that the flu did get you. I hope you're recovering quickly.

Beth said...

In the words of Dora the Explorer (don't ask me why...): Super Fabuloso!! Y'all did great! Congrats! I know you're so satisfied :-)

Lisa said...

Very elegant looking!

Mr. Thrift said...

It is not a pink living room. It is a living room that happens to be pink.

Sew Blessed Maw [Judy] said...

So sorry that you ended up with the flu too. Hope your feeling better.
I absolutely love the living room..Beautiful.. Great choice. And the trimming color is just perfect.

Sarah Barry said...

I love it! What a surprising color, but how cool!

You were smart to carefully plan your days during this project. Painting (or any home improvements) are not for the faint of heart.