Life At Thirtysomething

I have been splitting hairs for weeks on what colors to paint our new house in Indianapolis. This is both fun and anxiety inducing because I want to really do something different and fun, but I’m scared to death to be stuck with paint I don’t like. I know I can change paint, but look; I’m no kind of painter. I’ve tried painting in my first condo and I sucked ass at it. I stared at awful paint streaks every day for a year and a half of living in that place. Plus, I picked a color that I thought was a nice warm mocha, but it ended up looking more like the color of a freaking Wendy’s Frosty. I hate painting. I don’t know what’s worse, the painting or the prep before the painting where you have to tape off all the ledges and baseboards. It’s horrible. So I pay big bucks (but hopefully smaller bucks for this next painter) to have it done for realz. But I’m suffering from indecisiveness. I need your help!

Ok, our new home is a ranch style home where the main living space is all on one level, including three bedrooms, a family room, large kitchen, office, and laundry. The basement includes another large family room area, two more bedrooms and a bathroom. For now, we’re only painting the upstairs because the basement was recently finished and has a nice simple taupe that I can handle for now.

I’ve lived in taupe land all my life. Well, I lived in wall paper land for more than half my life in my childhood home, but in my adult life, it’s been taupedy taupe taupe. Now we live in the world of Pinterest and Houzz.com and HGTV’s House Hunters around the clock. I need to infuse some color into my world. Nothing crazy here, I’m not looking for a tangerine kitchen with moss colored cabinets. I like calming colors like blues, greys, bolder beiges (OK dark taupe!!), and light turquoise/teals. But, man have I driven myself nuts on the perfect blue or what?? I can’t ask Jeff’s opinion because he lives on the corner of Light Taupe and I’M TOO SCARED TO TRY ANYTHING NEW. So his opinion is null. I need you to help me pick the perfect paint combos.

I’ve been pinning all my new home ideas on Pinterest on the pin board “Ideas for new home.” Below, I have included the colors I’m thinking about so I need you to vote on what you like the best! Here goes…

This is the general color palette I’m trying to go off of. It’s neutral and with a calming feel. I’m picking my own versions of the greys, blues, and taupes.

Entry way/hallway, family room and kitchen color: Benjamin Moore’s Revere Pewter. It’s a light grey with beige undertones. So far, this is my favorite color for the main living spaces.

OK, now I know I just got done saying I needed to get away from taupe, but this Sherman Williams Perfect Greige is really pretty and a little different. Is it grey…is it taupe? Might just depend on the light of day!­­

Which is better for the main living spaces?

For the master bedroom I want so badly to do a grey blue. I have light grey blue colors in my bedding and my Restoration Hardware curtains have gorgeous blue/grey and various taupe stripes.

This is Benjamin Moore’s Pleasant Valley Blue and has been a favorite of mine from this picture for a while. It bugs me that I can’t seem to get a paint swatch on this color so it’s hard to know how it looks in person. I also worry it may be a little dark.

What about a nice compromise and instead of doing an all blue room we do a blue accent color? I thought this was pretty…

Or for a light blue grey all over, what about Benjamin Moore’s Silver Grey? This would satisfy Jeff’s need to keep it light and not too dark.

For the new baby room I’m thinking about keeping that light grey from the main living spaces because it goes with the new Pottery Barn Kids nursery bedding I want, but I was thinking of doing bold stripes for an accent wall behind the crib. What do you think of something like this?

Ok, I think that’s enough for now. What are your favorites?? I’m dying to know! Please let me know what you think in the comments, thanks!

Baby bump watch continues – week 22

Here’s a different angle bump watch pic that I took yesterday. Getting a little bigger each week now, but happy to report that so far it’s all in front and I have no face and arm fat yet. There’s no way to avoid it I guess, but those glorious thunder thighs that I blogged about during my first pregnancy are back to rub uncomfortably for the next 18 weeks. I walk every day for over an hour plus go to the gym! So these thighs are just outa my control, promise!

Baby is about 11” long and almost a whole pound, whahoo! He’s finally starting to look like a miniature newborn. I still feel like childbirth is quite a ways off with 18 weeks to go. There’s so much to do before the baby comes, namely moving, and kick starting my new “mompreneur” business as a Stella & Dot Stylist! I can’t wait to fill you in on this new role I’ve taken on as I’m so excited to talk about it and model all the gorgeous new jewelry, scarves and bags I’ve just acquired  to have on display at trunk shows (Modeling the S&D “Jolie” necklace in bump pic). But that’s for a later blog, stay tuned! For now, let’s just get through the paint decisions…