Lighter and Brighter Makes Lizzie Happy

I have been told time and time again "it's amazing how a coat of paint can change the room".  I never really believed it until we tackled the living room.

In our case, it took two coats of primer AND a coat of paint, but you get the idea.  Shall we revisit the heinousness that was my living room?

Two walls of Chianti and and two of Alpeca Brown.  The only reason I know the names of the colors is because the previous owners left us a couple gallons of paint in case we wanted to "touch things up"  (snort snort).

When it came time to choose paint colors, I knew I wanted to go with a more neutral palette on the walls and bold accessories.  As much as I looooved my bold walls in the apartment, I was ready to grow up.

I was completely inspired by Adam and Kristina Braverman's house in Parenthood. 

I was obsessed with this wall color so I went a-googling.  I found this article that said it was Benjamin Moore's Saybrooke Sage.  I picked up a sample and after a mad love affair with this tiny scrap of color, I finally decided it was took dark for our tiny room-- and at $60 a can, a little too pricey for our wallets.

I returned to my old faithful, Valspar, and found Jekyll Grand Dining Sea Mist (seriously.. who's job is it to name these colors?  I want that job)

*Random Side Note:  Jekyll Grand Dining Sea blah blah blah was right below Carolina Inn Club Aqua-- the color the Youngsters used in their bedroom.  There was a tab above it said "Hot New Color!!" and they were completely out of samples.  How does that even happen?  Impressive Sherry and John, impressive.

Anyway, after a weekend of priming and painting, we are so happy with the outcome of our lighter and brighter room:


Still need to replace the carpeting.  We are getting to that.  Swears.

 It's like a completely different room, isn't it?  I said to JEGs that I don't feel angry when I sit in this room like I did when it had red walls.

For the wall along the stairwell we originally had Sparkling Sage picked out as an accent color.  However, as I started the cutting in, we realized the color was practically the same shade .  After a quick trip to Lowes, we came home with a gallon of Luna, and are much happier with the outcome.  This color will eventually be in the hallway upstairs as well.

Clearly we need new pillows.  Which brings me to my next topic....

What color should I accent with? I had originally planned to do a burnt red to really play off the fireplace.  However, I was in Joann's the other day and saw this fabric that I had been loving for a while that made me want to play with orange tones:

..and when I say for a while, I mean that I took this picture in September of last year.  Yeah. 

The fabric would really work nicely with our wedding invite that we have framed above the chair (hopefully to one day be incoprated into a collage) buuuuuutttttt, at the same time I don't want to clash with the fireplace-- cleary it's not going anywhere.

Shhhh... don't anyone mention painting the brick white-- you'll make JEGs' head spin.

So what do we think of the room?  I mean, obviously it's amazing, but please continue to swoon.  What do you think I should accent with??  Team Red or Team Orange.  Gosh, I wonder if this could be as polarizing as Team Jacob or Team Edward...

Always & Forever,
  ME

P&S.. the solo cup on the window is not my inablity to clean up after a kegger.  We are trying to grow an avacado plant and that is the ONLY window in the house that gets direct sunlight.  I felt like I needed to point it out.