New Paint + Curtains

Just a warning- I probably should have split this into 2 posts (paint and curtains). I feel like this post is choppy at the end- but it just makes sense to keep them together because they fit so well in the space together! So here goes!

Something I've wanted to do since the day we moved in is paint our living room, dining room, and hallway walls. The color- a tan/light khaki was ok. But in some lights it seemed to turn pink which is a common issue with "tans". It obviously didn't bother us enough to change it quickly- since it took 4.5 years to do it!

I scanned the blog to find some true to life pictures of the old tan color:

The first picture is more true to life. The second looks washed out from the flash.
Here is the color the day we moved in-

When we redid the master bathroom, I decided to turn to pinterest to find a color. I had NEVER done this before. And I had no idea how it would turn out- but it quickly became my favorite gray tone! It's called Gray Horse by Benjamin Moore. I had it color matched to Martha Stewart paint for the bathroom and for the living room I used Behr. Here it is as I was cutting in with the gray on the tan wall. You can see how the gray is a little darker than the tan. 

Because it was such a success in the bathroom, we decided it would be our whole house color! Over Christmas break my mom came up to help paint, and we got the whole space knocked out in about 4 days. Add that to the 2 or so days it took to do the hallway...

Here are some pictures of the new color in the living room:
The gray against our chunky white frames-

I had to recut the vinyl for the "masterpieces".

It now matches my quatrefoil painting perfectly (since I used leftover bathroom paint!)-

And here it is next to our new "office". I still owe you a post about that!

We also upgraded our curtains on the back door in the dining room... we had already updated our curtains in the living room here. I say updated because we worked with what we had and added a panel to each window to make them more... flow-ey. Our old curtains on the back door were purchased the week (practically) we moved in. If I could do it over again I would highly recommend WAITING until you have figured out what look you are going for before spending $30+ on curtains. It was a mistake I lived with for 4.5 years and I was so ready for a change! The dark red made our whole space feel closed in and they hardly let any light in. Also it blocked the view we so desperately worked to achieve (when we moved in the seal on the back door was broken so the glass was all cloudy- we lived with that for 6 months before changing out the sliding door). This was the only picture I could find of the red curtains. I never took a picture of just them! (This was at Luke's first birthday!)

My only requirement was that the new curtains kept the privacy factor- i.e. not be so see through that they are sheer, and that they let some light in. I also wanted to raise the rod about 5 inches to give the door some height. We reused the old rod that used to hang right at the door moulding. This gives it some much needed height.

The curtains are from IKEA. I went a little crazy... When I went I knew exactly what curtain panels I needed. When I got there I couldn't find them. They are the VIVAN panels. I over heard another couple saying they were looking for the same ones. I found 2 packs seriously misplaced in a different container, so I grabbed both of them. It was an honest mistake because I didn't realize that 2 panels came in one pack (for $9!!!). So (in my selfish grabbing fit) I actually ended up with 4 panels and had to return one pack- since I only needed 2 curtains. I felt a little guilty and I really hope the other couple found some. I just didn't think it was possible to get 2 96-98in long curtain panels for $9!! Here's how they look on the back door-

Also the casing for the rod to slip through was not thick enough for our rod, so I jumped on Amazon and ordered some thick ring clips. Also I did have to hem the curtains. Not sure how much- I hung them, figured out how much I needed to take off and sewed a straight line!

The VIVAN panels are the same ones we used to update our living room curtains.

We also grabbed a rug that I fell in love with at SAMS of all places. At $20 I couldn't resist! It pulls the white from the curtains, blue from the living room and navy/green from the laundry room. I love happy accidents like this!

Back to the paint color- a little before:

and after from the same angle:

This is literally the perfect color for our space! We love it!