Painted Living Room

We refinished our hardwood floors in the spring of 2009, and as part of the project Mike upgraded the shoe moulding and painted the living room.  Previously the living room was a medium-toned beige with light beige carpet.  Pair those colors with our greenish-beige couches and the room was very sad. 

As part of the floor refinishing project I decided on a light gold color for the living room walls, determined to bring in color.  This decision was made before we chose a dark stain for the floors and before we moved the black living room curtains to the bedroom and replaced them with green ones.  I didn't like the wall color once it was up, so Mike repainted it a darker tone for me.  I still didn't like it, but having tortured Mike enough, we chose to go with it.

Fast forward to last month.  I was out at Marshall's with the babies in their big ol' DSNG when I finally found some pillows for the couches (I've been browsing for them since the floor project).  Shopping isn't what it used to be, and I had to flag down a sales person restocking the housewares section and request that she take my three pillows to the checkout for me.  Although discount stores don't typically offer this sort of service, she seemed happy to help once she saw the adoralbe cargo that limited my shopping haul.

I liked the pillows when I got them home, but as these updates tend to do, they made me want to make another change in the room: the macaroni and cheese walls I've been staring at daily for five months.  In the last month of my pregnancy I was pretty  much grounded to the couch, and since the babies were born we have really been living in the living room.  To my delight, Mike agreed to repaint (or should I say re-re-repaint). 

We prepped on Friday night, my mom and I took the babies to a mom-to-mom sale on Saturday morning, and Mike got to work (he never seems to want my help, and I'm not complaining).  I camped out in our bedroom with the babies for most of the weekend, and we put the room back together again on Sunday night.

Mike wasn't totally thrilled with the color I chose (Quail Egg by Valspar) until he saw how the rest of the room popped when it was complete, no longer competing with the walls. 

Before:

After:

In person there is a stronger contrast between the wall and ceiling/trim color.  To some people this may be a litte too "beigey" once again, but I am in love with how soft and creamy the walls are and how the white coved ceiling, dark floors, green curtains, items on our shelves, and our new pillows are the stars of the show as they should be.