Painting the Living Room

About two years ago we painted the living room. It had been a gorgeous dark blue-green, but comments had been made that it was so dark that entering the room in mid-winter led one to dream of slitting one's own throat. So, in an attempt to lighten up, we painted it "Filbert" by Devine Paints.

(first photo, before)

Some of us liked it. Some of liked the lightening effect, but didn't like the color, which (when applied over a whole wall rather than a foot-square patch) resembled a smear of anemic peanut butter (creamy style). Some of us didn't like it.

We couldn't repaint right away; one doesn't. But the statute of limitations has passed, and now we have. It took several ballots, all of us voting across 14 different colors (children included in the vote -- they showed solidarity, both wanting "no change" or a brilliant blue which no one else liked), and in the end I think we got a color that everyone (even the children) likes a lot, and the room looks great. It's the Miller Paint Historical line: Wainscot Green.


(third photo, after)

The big difference, however, was not the paint, but the woodwork. After the discovery of the dining room's box-beamed ceiling, the single line of concave quarter round around the ceiling of the living room looked unpleasantly modern, bare and wimpy. So HomoDommi and I picked out crown molding and picture rail, and created a ceiling edging to balance the dining room. (He did all the actual work: the staining, many layers of gloss, the measuring, cutting, recutting, application, swearing, removal, reapplication, re-recutting, etc. I just supervised and gave opinions about color).

If there's a problem with the new look, it's that, after all that work (and expense, although as housing projects go this wasn't bad) it doesn't show. The woodwork looks likes it's always been there. Which is a good thing, I suppose.

For perspective, Lou and Peter Berryman question, "Why Am I Painting My Living Room?"

The living room

Usually visitors' first question upon seeing the box beams in the dining room is whether we think there is something similar hidden above the adjoining living room ceiling. This is a blurry photo, but you can see the plainness of the living room (photo taken right after repainting the room last summer).


We don't think there were. Mostly because the current ceiling is at the height of the original dining room ceiling. And we can't see above it when we poke a hole in the wall from another room.

We do believe the quarter-round currently installed is new. At some point (probably during the general "update" in the 1950's, when the kitchen was remodeled, and the dining room ceiling dropped, and the new windows installed in the dining room) that they also stripped off all the cornices from the downstairs woodwork. It remains only in the back room (currently a tv room) and the upstairs hall.

We will be installing matching, fancier, crown-molding in both the dining room and the living room when the mural is finished. I'm pushing to have the cornices re-installed (we can get the same cut at Rejuvenation House) but that would be fairly expensive.