New Paint in the Home Office and Guest Room

It seems like not a week can go by that we (mainly meaning John) are doing another project.  I mentioned that I needed a little more color in my home office and John said he could paint it himself. 

The reason that seems doable is that we have 12 foot ceilings and transom windows throughout our home and painting is dangerous and painful.  Because of the attic space above my office, the ceiling is a normal 8 foot height.

And then.

It seemed like a good idea to paint the guest room a more neutral shade than its current yellow hue.  John also wanted to paint that and it DOES have 12’ ceilings and a transom window.  He might be the teeny tiniest bit stubborn and once he said he could paint, I couldn’t get him to back down and hire our regular painters (who we love, by the way).

So our house was at sixes and sevens for the three or four days it took to get everything done.  One thing I really struggle with is having things out of place in my house.  Mind you, cat fur flying, and dust in the window tracks is perfectly fine, but untidiness.  Yikes!

Half of my office furniture was in the middle of the room and the rest was out in the hallway.  My laptops and working environment had to be relocated to the kitchen table.  I was folding laundry in the living room.

The cats loved having everything out of place. They found new perches and new beds everywhere.

Really, I know this sounds like paltry first-world problems, but I’ve been struggling with this off-and-on mess-making through quite a few projects this year.  And it’s not like I can leave the house and go do anything else.

Home Office

But, it’s all done now and I could not be happier with the new color of my office.  My inspiration was from Ballard Designs.  I so love when their catalog comes in the mail and I can just drool over their beautiful things.  They share their color schemes on their Web site and I found Benjamin Moore’s Constellation. It is featured with light colored furniture and wooden floors such as I have.

It has a soothing spa feel that is a nice atmosphere for me to spend my day in.

Guest Room

Our guest room (right now) has sort of a blush color scheme going on.  To be quite honest, I don’t really love it in there, but it’s what I have and I’m keeping it for a while.  Everything I bought is quite pretty, but I just don’t feel like it has quite enough oomph for me. 

What it does have is (I hope) exactly everything a guest needs to come to our home and be perfectly comfortable, if not outright pampered.  Well, if pampering includes getting up at the crack of dawn listening to our morning routine which is dictated by three spoiled cats.

The blush and yellow really didn’t go well together. We opted for a more beige look and chose Valspar Divine White.  The difference between the new color and the old creamy yellow is pretty small, but I think the room looks less dingy now.

I’m sorry for the poor quality of my photos. One of these days I will learn how to take pictures that allow all of our sunlight in without ruining every color.

I think we’ll try to go a few more days before finding a new project, but it does look really nice.

What I’m Reading

Okay, after talking about reading Vanity Fair for the last few posts, I have to admit.  I put it down.  At first I really liked it and I thought it was good until it got so darn cranky on me.  I have been in no mood to read things that end badly, and I could see by around 300 pages that was where it was heading.  Sort of like the trick Thomas Hardy played with Tess of the D’Urbervilles.  Why can’t these poor people just get a few breaks in life, I ask you?

Maybe I’m just looking for rainbows and puppy dogs right now, but I wasn’t letting Thackeray do it to me.  So we’re calling this a justified piece of English literature and fine for some people, but give me some dang Stephen King right now.

I have moved on and I’ll report back on Tuesday.

On audio I listened to Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig.  I serendipitously chose it because I am a fan of  narrator David Aaron Baker. Whoo hoo – big hit!!

This is the first book I’ve read by Doig and the last before he died.  Happy I am that I’ll have others of his to read, but I’m so sorry I found him after he was gone.

This is a warm-hearted tale about a young boy whose life has taken one wrong turn after another. But with his swift mind and colorful characters, he experiences a summer of ups and downs that shape him and delighted me.

One of my favorite things about books is when they dwell not in the black and white, but in the gray of life and this one hit the mark.

I loved the viewpoint of an 11-year-old boy and the way he interprets the world.  The things he found mystifying and the things he knew for sure.  This boy would have been born in the same year as my mother was and it felt happily nostalgic for me.

This book provided a big dose of comfort for me and boy did I need it.

So that’s a wrap on this week – enjoy your weekend!