The Most Painted Room at our Old House

I was going through an old thumb drive looking for photos and came across a ton of events and things that I have never blogged about. I guess the past couple of years have been so crazy, I haven't had the energy. Get ready, because I'm going to be posting about them throughtout the year!

The dining room at our old house was basically three walls, open to the living room but it was the first room I had a major inspiration for. 

We took a trip to New Orleans and I noticed that there were fabric panels in between the wall trim in the hotel room. The paint matched so well that the fabric panels were very subtle, and at the time I worked at a paint store so I figured I could match whatever fabric I picked, no problem.

So I picked some fabric that I thought was subtle enough and spent hours, HOURS, matching the paint. I still don't think I got it close enough. I do remember just giving up because it wasn't fair to the store to waste that many gallons trying to get the color right. If I were a customer we would have tried to wrap up the sale.

I remember finding the perfect square table that seats 8, and deciding to paint our cheap Ikea chairs instead of stain them. This picture clearly shows that they do not match (paint is opaque) but we decided to ignore it at the time. 

Then I slapped up some cheap symmetrical stock artwork and called it a day. 

There's a detail shot of the fabric panels. I used cardboard cut to fit, wrapped them in fabric, and used velcro on the back to affix them to the walls. 

After a little while I started getting bored with the room- it was probably that terrible art- and wanted a change. We had been on a few trips around the world and I wanted a map with little dots showing places we had been. 

I found this one on Etsy and chose the colors for it; when it arrived I picked a wall color that was slightly lighter than the map and went to town. I'm shocked at how bright it is! haha

The wood panels were supposed to have the quote fashioned out of brads nailed into it, but it was really difficult and expensive so I gave up and painted it.

It's funny looking back because I remember feeling unsure about these design decisions- including painting the last line of the quote on the wall- but if you aren't going to take risks in your house, who will?

It's not that big of a deal to paint 3 walls over if you aren't happy. In fact, we did paint it back to neutral at our realtor's request when we put it on the market. And it sold in 3 days.

My style has evolved to something much simpler and relaxing on the eye but it's still fun to look back and see when I had fun with it and went a little over the top.