Painting the Living Room

“Let’s paint the living room yellow!”

Here I was, thinking that painting a bedroom gray was a big step and Jonathan is looking at yellow for our living room. He was so excited, what could I say but yes? I had one caveat—I would get to pick the shade.

We’ve all seen the historic Craftsman homes with the stained wood paneling and the warm gold walls, but I wasn’t sure it would translate to a bright room with white trim. In fact, I was sure it would end up looking like one big school bus. (“Those are actually orange,” says Jonathan.)

I asked my mom to see if she could find a yellow that complemented the grey and the green of the bedrooms and she got straight to work (she’s got perfect pitch when it comes to colors and is a genius at matching them.) Here’s the results of her research:

Paint Chips

It came in the same post as our New Yorker Magazine so I figured it was a sign:

New Yorker Magazine
Unfortunately, the shade of gold my mom recommended was a little too close to our wood floors and I was concerned we’d end up with a monochromatic room. I turned to our trusty Sherwin Williams paint chips and found something close, but slightly brighter:

Hubbard Squash
Hubbard Squash

We were pros at painting by then and we finished up the living room fairly quickly. We think it ended up looking fantastic with the white trim—and not at all like a school bus.

Painting the Living Room
Painting the Living Room

Living Room After

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