A House of Many Colors

I grew up in a white house. Not THE White House, but definitely a white house. I love my mom and dad dearly, and they have since ventured into the world of color, but growing up, the walls were to remain white. I think it was probably just the trend in the late 80s/early 90s. Now that I think of it, I don't remember having any friends with colorful painted homes either. You mostly had wallpaper or white.

In my childhood room, one wall was wallpapered with pink ribbons and the others were white. My sister had one wall of wallpapered bears, and the others were white. I bet my mom could tell early on that I had a penchant for color when I used to beg her to let me paint the outside of our house. The idea that my mom would ever even consider letting me paint the outside of the house is of course laughable, but I asked a lot. To appease me, she gave me large painter's brushes and a bowl of water and told me to go at it. It's embarrassing to admit, but I painted the front of our house with water multiple times in my childhood. I liked how it made the bricks a little darker for a moment. My mom liked how I was cleaning the outside of the house for free. Well played, mom... well played.

When I was in high school, I earned all of my extra money by babysitting. There was one family who had me as a nanny all summer. I took care of their son Timothy. Boy that kid loved to play sports outside in the 100 degree summer weather. But the point is that Timothy had the coolest house. Timothy's mom also loved color, and she had boldly painted every single room a different color. The colors were not loud or tacky. They all worked together to make the house welcoming and warm. As I walked through those rooms while babysitting, I would think to myself: SOMEDAY, I will have a house and every room will be painted a different color.

Well, my someday was finally realized last weekend when the last of the paining was done in our house. I now have a room for every color of the rainbow except orange, because let's be serious, Brent would never allow that. I have rooms that are red, yellow, green, blue, purple, and brown. OK brown is not in the rainbow, but it's still a color! I give you: The House of Many Colors:

Bedroom: Glidden Cafe Latte and Behr Briquette

Kitchen / Breakfast / Living Room: Behr Grass Cloth

Dining Room: Behr Blue Fox

Study: Behr Grape Haze

Guest Bedroom: Behr Torchlight

If you're contemplating white or color... pick color!!!! It's just paint! Be fearless! My top three painting tips are:

1. Always use flat paint. It looks much more sophisticated.
2. Take home lots of chips from the store and tape them up on the wall. Use samples if they sell them. You want to pick just the right shade, so look at the colors in lots of different light before you pick one.
3. Be really nice to your husband so he will hire you a painter. This is key. If you think I painted all that... you are out of your mind.

Happy color-picking!