The first week of March, while Kansas City was getting pummeled with snow, I got to take a little family trip down to my grandparents’ Florida condo. And while the majority of the vacation’s weather was glorious, there were a couple days in there that were not so glorious. So what’s a girl to do? Why, redecorate, of course.
My dear, sweet aunts had gone for a “Nantucket” vibe about 15 years ago. Read: chambray comforters, sky blue walls and floral sheets. Hello!
So with a little paint (Ok, a lot of paint. The first color bombed and we had to go back for round 2) and a little shopping (Errr, a lot of shopping…two beds means double the sheets, pillows, and blankets…) we came out with a pretty clean and peaceful new guest bedroom before the thunderclouds even drifted from our Florida skyline.
It’s amazing what paint can do to transform a space. And if we hadn’t goofed up the first color, we could have chocked the painting up to a $35, 3 hour upgrade. Easy peasy. But life ain’t ever that simple!
Here’s my big takeaway. Wall paint is dramatically influenced by trim color. Although the plantation shutters and headboards looked white, they were actually a very creamy white with a lot of yellow undertones. When the original color I picked out went up, it was all sorts of wrong. Something about the Benjamin Moore Pale Oak just did not mesh well with the trim. Our second color we picked, however, went on beautifully. It’s Benjamin Moore’s Revere Pewter.
The colors on the swatch are hardly different, but in person, the color change up was well worth it. Here’s a really terrible iphone picture of the contrast between the two shades…
We carried the color on into the attached bathroom. I wish I had a before and after picture from the same angle, but half my mind was at the beach so I wasn’t thinking smart!
Anyway, there you have it – a little vacation redesign brought to you all the way from the coast!