Purple!

I love our house. It's beautiful and spacious and has a lot of really nice details, but ever since we moved in I knew that we needed to paint. We got the wallpaper off the entry way and got that painted, got the orange out of our family room and repainted it two lovely shades of blue, and got all the kids' rooms painted. Next up, the dining room.

Now, you may wonder why it takes me so long to get my house painted. I know people who move into a place and paint every single wall right away. I'm not like that for two reasons: 1. It takes me a while in a place to figure out my game plan. I'm not a natural decorator. I need to live somewhere for a while and get my bearings before I can decide which direction I want to go. 2. I HATE TO PAINT! Seriously, all of you who love it, why?? The finished product - certainly. The actual process, no way. So those of you who love to paint, I still have a few other rooms that need painting. Feel free to come over and do it for me.

I knew that I wanted something bold and attention-getting in the dining room. The bottom 3rd of that room is white and I intended to leave it that way so I knew that I wanted to be bold with the top. I'd done red before and I was over that so I knew that wasn't the winner. I actually wanted purple pretty bad but I didn't want Justin to hate it. So I got a few samples and taped them to the wall. A few shades of green, a few shades of gold, a burnt orange, and my purple. Justin didn't like the purple at first, but I wore him down (as any good wife would do) and he caved. I could do purple.

My mom was coming out for the weekend so I decided I'd wait for her to get here before I started. She's one of those crazies who actually doesn't mind it so I thought I'd let her help me (and let Justin off the hook since he likes painting about as much as I do). On Saturday my mom suggested that I get started while she watched the kids and then we could finish up that evening once they went to bed.

Sounded good to me so I got to work. Justin, being the good guy that he is, got on his painting clothes and pitched in. This is how I know he loves me. He used one of his precious days off (well, he had to work that night, but still he could have been sleeping) to help me paint our dining room purple. A color he doesn't even love by the way. Yep, we're gonna be married forever.

Anyway, with his help it took WAY less time then I thought it would. My mom ended up not even having to chip in and we got the whole thing done by 9:00 at night. In the end, once it was all up, I L.O.V.E. it! It's even better than I imagined. I can now see how that room is going to come together (it's gorgeous in my head). But (in the words of Levar Burton), don't take MY word for it:

This one is during the light of day. It looks kind of black, but it's not.

 This was after only one coat which is why it looks super purple (plus I think my flash was on).

 This is actually a pretty good idea of the color. Really eggplant. Love it!

 I especially love how it pops with the white of the bottom of the wall and the molding.

 Josie also loves that the room is purple.

Next up on my painting agenda: our toy room. I have the color already picked out (and actually put a little sample paint up on the wall). It's going to be green. It's a nice shade that looks especially lovely when you're standing in the toy room looking into our dining room. I have it on my to do list in the next week or so. Who wants to come help?