I Bailed on Fennel, And Then I Redecorated

After sharing my swatch testing experiment I had good vibes about painting the whole upper half of the living room in #3, a Behr color match to Valspar’s Fennel Splash (if fennel could splash, I don’t even know what that paint name means).

It resonated well with me in both daytime and nighttime, and we spent several days evaluating how the color looked in all lighting situations (and I know a lot of you out there really liked it too, so thanks for chiming in with your encouraging comments and votes!). Different from the original sunshine yellow “Summer Field,” the new option was closer to a “champagne” yellow/beige, and although the other two options seemed similiar enough on the paint chips, the Fennel Splash in actuality was still a warmer hue than its test-time counterparts.

I didn’t suspect that a slight change in paint color would make a big impact in the grand scheme of the design of the room, but thought it would help to refresh the room and lighten it up a little bit.

The thing was, I decided to do one more test before making it final, and I’m glad I did, because after I slathered the rest of the $2.97 paint sample along the wall above the fireplace, completely covering all of the existing yellow, I didn’t like it as much. It was a deflating moment. In this larger application, the light yellow felt… dirty… or not dirty, just not right… and I guess that just meant that it wasn’t enough contrast for me. If the trim had still been natural wood, all stained and rich like the mantle itself, I’d probably think otherwise, but right here right now, I gave it a big ol’ thumbs down.

And so I ditched the plan to repaint the room, and went back for the tried and true Summer Field (fortunately I still have plenty of the gallon I bought in 2009, and it’s even still in good shape–not thick and spoiled thankfully).

Even though I bailed on the fennel, I didn’t completely forget about the idea of infusing sea foam green into our home’s color palette; the minty green had been an accent color in the inspiration palette for which I still have strong feelings. After I had repainted the wall above the fireplace to its original Summer Field, I turned my focus to the decor in the room, and decided to give the square color blocked canvas that had been on top of the mantle for almost a year (has it been that long?) a bit of attention.

Considering that the green-gold color was still applicable and would help to tie the updated piece of art with the rest of the house palette, I decided to simply submerge the bright orange color beneath a few thick coats of white paint, and then tape over it in a stripe-y fashion with painters tape, each stripe carefully measured. And while I did that, I ate gummies. And Pete waved on.

I clearly have a thing for stripes, considering the color blocking in the living room already, and the stripe that I just painted in Julia’s room, and the striped shirt I’m wearing in the above picture. The accent stripes would be the perfect opportunity to infuse a little sea foam green, and I already even owned some paint that would do the trick (it was an OOPS bin purchase that I bought compulsively a few years ago because it was only $1, but the insides of the can have still never seen the light of day).

It turned out beautifully. I love how this canvas is getting a really thick coat on it too; it’s getting better with each refinish. And it has this fun retro feel to it, which kind of loosely ties into a new piece of Mini art that you’re going to see further down the post. Keep scrollin’, keep scrollin’.

And besides that, I’ve been mixing artwork up in other parts of our living area too. A few weeks ago, Pete moved Julia’s chalkboard into the house and in an effort to keep it in the section of the house that we spent the most time in (instead of like, the basement, although we do spend a lot of time doing projects down there), we tried it out in the corner of the dining room and moved the Umbrella tree and West Elm basket to make space for it. The ottoman found a new home upstairs outside our bedroom door, and the space is feeling light and balanced now, with a new air of creativity thanks to colorful chalk and J’s bottomless pit of art supplies that are carefully tucked away beneath the new board.

After bringing in the chalkboard, I also moved the Fab map into the living room over one of our bookshelves. Also in doing so, I eliminated the curly willow branches, diassembled the floating shelf and patched some holes that it left behind, and made shelf space for the 30 Disney VHS tapes that my Dad delivered while he house sat for us last week. Side note: Yes, I still have a VHS player, yes, the tapes display decently even on our hi-def flat screen TV, and yes, the movies are a big hit since so many of the classics I owned as a kid are back “in the vault”. The girl hadn’t seen Peter Pan until just this past weekend.

With the addition of the VHS tapes, and the fact that I’m keeping all of the movie spines exposed until we’ve had a chance to view them all (20 times), the shelves are pretty busy, so I like that the single framed map can serve as a nice anchoring piece of decor.

In place of the map on the dining room shelf, I rearranged a few pieces of art and some books; it’s a space that’s constantly being mixed up depending on what we’re reading, what flowers are being picked from the garden, and whatever kid artwork is coming home, but right now I’m feeling it. Even though there’s a glare on the glass, that DIY’ed Rorschach Art had never actually been hung on the wall, so it’s nice to have it nicely hung even if it did mean that I was wincing as I tapped a nail into the precious, undisturbed shiplap wall.

On the opposite side of the dining room, I also rearranged our other two shelves. Pete moved some of his framed vintage Mini prints into the house recently, and the colors of this one vibe nicely with the colors downstairs and against the shiplap wall. I’ve never kept these shelves very lit-heavy, but moving some of our cookbooks in seemed to brighten things up and balance the space out. I’m no pro at shelving organization, but I’m liking where this space is going, albeit still in progress.

Anyways, a little decor switch feels refreshing. Onward with other projects of the moment.

I’m spending the remainder of the day with my fingers soaking in gel stain, if you know what I mean. Check back in tomorrow for a little update on the state of the kitchen.