tiffany blue, cerulean, aqua, ultramarine…

Princess Y recently declared that she is over the color pink. Pink is sooooo last year. Suddenly pink is for babies. You see, she is 10 now, and it’s all about the turquoise. Well, yes ma’am. 

To celebrate her newfound favorite hue, We had a fun mother-daughter day at the mall, spotting as much turquoise as her little heart desired. We topped of the day at Sephora where she got her very own little (overpriced, yikes!) bottle of turquoise nail polish. Aint it purrty?!

 

 

Or if you don’t enjoy looking at feet, here’s some other turquoise.

 

 

 

Anyway.

This got me to thinking about the freedom of being young and not so set in your ways. When it comes to fashion and personal accessories, I gravitate towards earthtones, like orange (my favorite!), browns, greens.  It takes stepping out my comfort zone to dress in blues, purples, and jewel tones. 

I thought my love of orange should reflect in home décor, but that did not end well. I once painted my living room a deep fiery orange that I loved. I repainted a few short weeks later when I could no longer take the oppression of the color’s intensity.  From that experience I have learned that I prefer my walls in neutrals. My home is (on the way to being) neutral and muted. Which I love. But I still crave color.

As it so happened, I read The Nester’s post about "Take-a-risk day.” This has encouraged me to paint a piece of furniture in a color other than my usual black, white or dark brown.  I will post the result on Thrifty-Tuesday. Stay tuned.

What about you? Do you ever feel like you’ve gotten stuck in a rut or set in your ways? How do you go about breaking out and trying something new?

in progress…

I spent my weekend simultaneously painting my behemoth of a built-in bookcase and caring for my ill 4 year old.  My poor baby’s had the crud since last tuesday when his teacher told me not to even bother bringing him to school the next day. He was better by the weekend… so much better in fact that we let him go on an outing with some friends. By sunday he was relapsing with the fever and headache, along with the nasty cough. He is much better today, but I don’t want another relapse, so this afternoon, it’s off to the doctor’s we go, since he might need antibiotics to really kick it. It also didn’t help that on saturday he discovered inside his backpack, a box of chocolate milk he’d forgotten about from school (since tuesday!!!). Imagine my horror when I found out that he’d made a tasty snack of it. Yikes, and double yikes! Luckily he didn’t have any tummy problems from it, but I wonder if that caused the relapse? Gotta love 4yr old boys…

Anyway, here’s the bookcase, phase 1 of my family room re-do.  This is a room I’ve avoided being in because I didn’t quite know how to lighten it up to my taste.  The room faces south, so it doesn’t get a lot of light. Adding to the cave-like feel is all the knotted pine in dark yellowish/orangish stain. In my attempt to work work with the existing color of wood trim, I painted the walls this unfortunate color yellow. It didn’t look so yellow in the can…It was hard to get a good pic, but I hope you see the beginnings of the transformation. Yes, I know the wood is beautiful and some would consider it a sacrilege to paint over it, but it’s not for me…too cabin-like.

 

Before:

 

 

After:

the ill 4yr old who’s doing much better insisted on getting in the pic

 

Here’s a close-up of the paint job:

I love the way it turned out, don’t you?

Here’s what I did:

1. Wiped down the whole thing with a mixture of TSP and water to get rid of dirt and dust.

2. I did NOT sand at all. Why? Because I primed with Zinsser B-I-N primer, which seals in any knots and stains and adheres to slick surfaces. I did   one coat, but I will do 2 in the future because:

3. I painted 2 coats of paint. After the first coat, I wasn’t happy with the coverage. If I’d used 2 coats of primer, I’m certain that one coat of paint would’ve sufficed.  I used Behr Premium paint in Ultra Pure White. I’m letting the paint cure for a couple of days before putting anything on the shelves to prevent scratches. I did my pantry shelves the same way and had no problems with peeling or scratching.

Gawd, I have so much painting to do! Just imagine, not only my family room, but also my kitchen walls and cabinets are paneled like this. Fun, fun.