Once we were all moved in and settled in the new place, we quickly set about improving it to our liking. There were many small projects, mend this, clean that, mostly boring and annoying. One of the things we knew we’d want to do soon after moving in was repainting the place.
The color palate on the walls, when we moved in, looked very much like the “brown” side of my closet, specifically, where my pants hang. Some of the walls were tan, some khaki, some beige, others were camel, still others light brown, taupe, and finally, the dining room was painted a 30% milk chocolate brown. Mmmm. I have no intrinsic aversion to earth-tones. I’m wearing those camel colored pants right now. I’m also not terribly fashion-conscious, but I do believe earth-tones work well for pants, best, in fact, for pants.
We collect modern furniture, and I don’t hesitate to call it art. The furniture is expressive, clean lines embellished just for the sake of it. It’s bold, it’s shouting through a megaphone. Hell, some of it is bright orange. It really looks best in a room full of crisp white walls, like primary colored oil paints stand out best on a bleached linen canvas.
I realize that some people think white walls are boring, or cold or sterile. Perhaps. Perhaps these people would feel more comfortable in an environment where everything sort of blends together, like putting a 7-layer dip into a mixer for a minute and a half, a place where their furniture can hide out in plain sight, quietly waiting there, careful not to stop anyone in their tracks. There’s nothing wrong with that, either, just like there’s nothing wrong with shunning all foods other than oatmeal and bananas for every meal, every day. I just couldn’t do it myself. I’d miss the bold flavors. I’d miss the eye-watering, mouth-scorching, painful burn that only comes from some sadistic little red pepper in an Indian or Burmese dish. I’d get bored.
So, in short, we lived with the chocolate brown for as long as we possibly could (1 week) before we had to bring in a couple gallons of “Bleached Linen”. And for extra fun, I shot a time-lapse video of us prepping and painting, condensing 5 and a half hours down into 22 seconds.
Here we are, painting our dining room, in time-lapse. This is just the first coat, of 2. My favorite part is how the room is now brighter at night than it used to be during the day.
Enjoy.