When I mentioned wanting to “frame the new painting in the living room”, this is the one I was talking about. It looks fine with its white edges, but I’m thinking it needs a simple frame in a medium-toned wood, or maybe plain black.
I’ve tried a few things in that corner of the living room over the years. Here’s an old shot from the same angle.
Sigh. I really don’t miss all that unpainted wood because it didn’t look good in person, but it was mighty pretty in photos. Anyway, I liked that print by The Black Apple for a long time, but I was ready for something different. I hung my Amy Ruppel painting there for a while too.
It’s now on the opposite wall, above the floral chair. I briefly tried this giant botanical print in that corner next.
It was way too big for the space, and it looks so much better in my bedroom. The new painting is the right size, the right colors, and I love its movement and design.
And are you digging the tiny fingerprints all over the TV? Me too.
I’ve been painting the exterior of the dollhouse off and on, and I’ve finally finished. I asked Eleanor what color she wanted and I’m pretty sure she named every color but orange, so in the end we went with green.
It still isn’t finished though. There’s a front porch that I left off, and now I’m wondering if I should add it. I think there are shutters in the box with the porch too. This is an example of what the house could look like.
The window boxes and shingles are extras that didn’t come with the kit, but I’d like to add something like them to ours too. Do you think the front porch is a good addition though? It makes the whole thing a little more breakable (I’m thinking of August here), but maybe it’s more fun to play with a house that has a little overhang.
The room does look ages better than it did when we first moved in; I’ll give it that. Behold the before shot.
Right. So then Brandon and I redid the whole thing, and it looked like this.
And it still looks like that today, except with white trim. So now that I have new fabric in mind for the curtains, I’m trying to choose a new wall color.
I (like you, I’m guessing) love before and after shots. Over at My Colortopia, there’s a new Show Your Colors section featuring tons of them from their readers. I like seeing what real people have done to their homes (and imagining what I would do if I was the person that lived there).
If you have any painting projects that you’re proud of, you can share your before and after photos too. You can get a feel for how it works with the widget in this post.
Now, as for my kitchen? I’m thinking green. But that could change tomorrow.
I have been sponsored by Glidden® brand paint to write this post but the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
I write for Glidden over at MyColortopia, and a while back I was discussing a few ideas with them that I had for projects. I was already answering advice column questions and recommending paint colors, and I wanted to take it a step further and actually help someone with a makeover. I had no idea that my little idea would lead to me flying to New York and spending three crazy long days painting three different apartments while being filmed! Remember this sneak peek of what I was up to last month? Well, the videos are ready and I can finally share them with you.
I had a very small budget for each of the makeovers, a five-minute phone conversation with each of the renters beforehand, and only three photos to go off of before choosing paint colors and accessories for each of them. First up is Lisa. She loved hot pink, so I was excited about helping her find a good shade of it for her entryway. She went with Very Berry, and I brought in some red-orange to liven it up a little further with a ceramic lamp and a bar stool. I also gave her a black and white hook to bring in all of the black and white accents, but it didn’t make it into the video.
Here’s Lisa’s makeover.
So fun, right? I love that she picked such a vibrant color, and the entryway was the perfect place to do something so bold. Her black and white art looked great against the new color, and I love the hits of orange in the space. Lisa loved it too, and I think it really suited her!
The next video features Cassandra. She wanted to repaint her bedroom because she was tired of the yellow that had been on the walls since she moved in. She had red curtains (that she’d made herself), vintage dressers, and brown, white, and teal bedding with an overscale graphic pattern. She mentioned that she liked gray in our phone conversation, so I selected three shades for her to choose from and she went with Dolphin Gray. I also chose a giant multi-colored wall art piece, a small glass lamp, and a pillow with subtle red dots.
I don’t think she realized that the gray she chose had some purple in it, but I thought it looked great! She hated that art though, yo. She was a good sport about it and she tried to live with it, but I knew she wasn’t going to keep it. Even though the scale of it was perfect, and it tied all of the colors in the room together, it just wasn’t her taste (I thought she’d go for it, based on her bedding and fabric choices, but no). I also grabbed that fantastic yellow lamp from her living room, and she has since moved it back. She wrote all about her side of the story on her blog.
The last video features Eliza. Her living room walls and trim were all the same shade of white. Eliza hates clutter and wanted to keep an open, airy feeling, but she was having a really hard time choosing a color for the room. I helped her select Sea Spray, a blue/green/gray hue. I gave her a new nesting coffee table (I fought hard to get that in the room, by the way), a beautiful new pillow on the couch, and an adjustable floor lamp.
This is Eliza’s makeover.
I don’t normally do accent walls, but it works in her apartment because we did the two long walls opposite each other and the architecture had recessed areas that lent themselves to the look. The white wall of windows feels like a wall of molding now, and the other white wall had a large doorway in it and a bookshelf. I did want to hang larger art over the sofa (Eliza had a great collection of art, just sitting in boxes), but we didn’t have the proper hardware. Still, I think the new color added so much to the space, and the blue is gorgeous and changes depending on the light.
My short New York trip was a whirlwind, but it was a great experience. The Newfangled video crew, Apartment Therapy team, Glidden people, and renters were all fantastic to work with, and I’m proud of the work we did! I hope Lisa, Cassandra, and Eliza will enjoy their rooms, and I hope you all enjoyed following along.
I’m at my third apartment makeover in New York, sneaking in a quick post. I thought I’d have a little time at the end of each day to do some of my posts over at Babble and to put together an Honor Roll, but we’ve had crazy long days! We’re filming three spots (they’ll be online in August), and not only am I the host, I’m also painting (from colors I recommended), rearranging, and styling each room that we work on.
The production crew is amazing, as is everyoneelse that’s involved in this project. I’m sharing photos on Instagram and I can’t share much more with you until everything goes live, but I’m really proud of the work we’ve done.
