Changing Color

From Pam

This post could be titled "How I spent My Valentines Weekend". I was not drawing, cutting or coloring valentines for my loved ones. But I was giving a gift of sorts to my sweetheart.

Typically during the winter here we do updates in our home- painting and updating and just generally doing some freshening up. Once spring arrives all our efforts at upkeep turn to the farm and gardens outdoors so I try to get something done in the house during the depths of winter. With the wedding occupying all my time in January, there isn't much time left for anything big. I decided to repaint our master bathroom since my husband was never very enamored with the color and I was just ready for a change.

I have to ask....is the need for change a part of the creative mind? I really don't like things to remain static in my life and that goes for anything- colors, decor, arrangements, menus, etc. Every few years I have a need to change my environment- move the furniture around, paint the walls or a piece of furniture, buy a new rug- something to shake up the visual landscape I live on. Is that just me? Or do other creative people do the same? I know some people are content to live with things always the same- the wall colors always the same, the furniture arrangement or wall decor the same, and they are perfectly happy. Not me. This is an example.

A few years ago I painted the walls of our bathroom a rich chocolate brown. A surprising choice to some but I loved it (still do). With cobalt blue tile that I hand made myself with clay and a rolling pin, and a matching blue glazed sink that I made on the pottery wheel and fired in my kiln, I am restricted in the color pallette. I really like how blue goes with beige, brown and white so that is the color pallette I used. Chocolate brown was an accent color in my adjacent bedroom so it tied them together.

                                        

                                        

I made the sink and tile probably about fifteen or more years ago. I made a sink for our other bathroom also and last winter I remodeled it and took it out. When we first built the bathroom it was important to me to have those hand made elements.

I still really like the richness of the brown walls but my husband never liked the color. I decided to give him a pastel color that he liked better since this is his space too (though he doesn't care about aesthetics as much as I do). I chose a pale blue grey for the walls and repainted the cabinets (which were originally stained oak before becoming white in the last remodel) a medium grey. 

                                         

That color change really changes the feel of the room don't you think?

                                    

I had the glass knobs on hand from a different project and absolutely love them on the grey cabinets.

                                    

Our small town has a great paint store where we know the owners who are extremely knowledgable and helpful. I have learned when picking a paint color to always ask for their advice. In this job I told them what I was doing. First we chose a pastel blue that would go well with the cobalt tile. When I told the owner that I wanted a medium grey for the cabinets but that the floor was also blue, he instructed me that the grey should have a warm tone and not a blue tone. I had been thinking that the grey would need to have undertones of blue to match. He said the grey would reflect the blues and if it already had a blue tone it would look blue rather than grey in the room. I think he was absolutely right and I am very happy with the way the walls and cabinets look together.

And my husband loves it.