You know that daunting task of picking out paint colors for your new home? Of knowing that the existing color probably could use a refresh; that the uncomfortably medicinal shade of peeling mint desperately needs to be laid to rest? So you march up to the paint chips (you just want to paint it white) and then you realize that there are seemingly 200 shades of white. Each nuanced. Each unique. Like snowflakes.
And then there’s the decorating. So many choices. I have had my fair share of rooms I painted, and then with a wince, promptly repainted (sorry, honey). But I learned something through the process. I like neutral walls and furniture accented with vintage pops of color. Neutrals are a tried and true color scheme that have stood the test of time, and to me they are calming. Our home’s color palette is built on black, white, and brown surfaces. We like well-worn leather. We like wood. We like vintage finds and useful objects with meaning attached. We like family heirlooms. I’m not sure why it took me so long to discover the right color scheme for our home. After all, I’m the girl whose go-to outfit for the foreseeable past and for the foreseeable future has been black and white stripes with a brown leather bag. This leads me to some advice. One. Maybe your go-to outfit holds the answer for the colors and textures you can use in your home to make it the most “you” that it can be. Two. In my experience, shopping for a room all at once rarely results in a space that will feel like you, and more often results in standing at the returns counter at Target for 25 minutes, wondering how your caffeine-induced shopping spree had ended so tragically. Instead, try taking stock of what you already have and what you already enjoy in your home and just shuffle things around a bit until they feel comfortable for you. Chances are, you don’t actually need the trendy new whatever, you just need to get a little creative with what you already have. A home filled with objects tied to memories is of far more value than a home filled with the new Target design line. (Don’t get me wrong. I still love Target.) Three. If the time is right and you’re really itching for some change, try a can of paint. It covers a multitude of wrongs. Personally, I like the $25 can of Behr paint from the Home Depot. It’s a good price with good coverage and a great line of colors to choose from. And this prompts a bit of paint-color-choosing advice: Four. We crave contrast. We follow supper with dessert. We dip our corn chips in salsa. We like scary movies with happy endings. We wear lipstick. Even in using neutrals, try to build depth with contrast. My high school art teacher taught us to blur our eyes at our paintings to see where more light or dark needed to be brought in. When I didn’t think to do that in our house, I ended up with a dining room that was a gloomy brown cave top to bottom and all in between. Oops. Hello, can of white paint. Much better. Our homes shouldn’t be something we feel like we need to escape from. They should be the place we can escape to. This doesn’t mean we have to go through extravagant measures to make it feel like a magazine. We don’t live in a magazine. We live in our homes. Our homes, with the china passed down generation after generation. With the afghan your great-grandmother knitted, and that you now snuggle up under to watch Netflix or read library books on rainy mornings. With the kitchen faucet your husband lovingly bought and installed as a gift for you, and you smile at when you scrub pots. With the throw pillows you thrifted in college (and cleaned; no worries), and they’re so worn out and napped on, but now you’re emotionally attached to them, so they’re still on the sofa. For me, living simply is letting yourself enjoy the things you enjoy and not feeling obligated to the rest. It’s cultivating a spirit of thankfulness. It’s living within your means and scrubbing the sink – again – while singing in your little kitchen and being so happy to have a sink to begin with. It’s realizing that a lot of the time the things we think are needs are not needs at all. They’re gifts.
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