Oh so blue...

Whew!  It's been a while since I've posted - sorry!  But, as you can see from the above photos I've been a bit busy.  My big project over Christmas break was to paint my living room.  This room was the last room in my home that I hadn't painted yet and it was way overdue.  I was seriously procrastinating doing it however, because it's 400 square feet, has two walls that lead up a staircase, and both the barnwood trim and the ceiling would need to be painted too.  With a long New Year's weekend at home, I had run out of excuses and just needed to get it done.  The barnwood trim was first.  It's not my favorite style of trim, but it was already there and nice and thick.  Plus, replacing it would have meant involving my husband, and well, he's not a big fan of projects I dream up for him.  So, I left it there and covered it with no less than 3 coats of bright white paint.  Things were looking up - this totally brightened my room and I loved it right away!  Next came the ceiling - I'm sure I don't need to mention that I absolutely hate to paint ceilings.  Did I mention this was a big room?  But it was quick and done in one day, and brightened the room even more.  Next came the walls.  I'd wanted blue walls forever, and we thought we had picked out a nice, sedate neutral blue with touches of gray and green in it.  Wrong.  But I didn't realize until I had it on 1/2 of the room just how wrong I was.  Then I thought it would look better after it dried.  Then I thought it would look better after two coats.  Wrong.  I was completely disappointed in the color, but my husband said it wasn't too bad, and it definitely looked better with my very neutral furnishing and decor back in place.  The problem is that with the white trim and ceiling, the room is SO much brighter than it had been, and in daylight the blue is too bright.  Way too bright.  But, in dimmer light, it's fine.  So, we're living with it - mainly because it's so much work to paint over it!  But, I have come to like it, even though it's a shock to see it in the morning light!  As I mentioned, I tried very hard to stick with very neutral decor for the room - white, black, gray, khaki and a little bit of red.  These colors help tone down the blue quite a bit.   I plan on adding a few more black and red touches over the next couple weeks, and eventually replace the leather chair and ottoman.  I never run out of projects!