Come Alive With Color

or "Colour"

"...If you don't dare, you are doomed to dullness" ~ Shirley Conran

I was aghast when a friend repainted her lovely classic, muted toned rooms in her tastefully decorated home with a Harley Davidson orange feature wall in the living room,  a Big Bird yellow kitchen and a fluorescent lime green bathroom, but now I think it looks fabulous! She dared and she dared bold!

When we bought our first home in Sherwood Park, AB I was a General Williams gal and painted all the bedrooms in muted greens but was daring enough to go dark purple in the bathroom. One splash of colour in the entire house, but that's all I dared. A few years later, I pulled a "While You Were Out" on my daughter and painted and redecorated her room with new light maple furniture, round mirror and checkered duvet cover from Ikea as well as a beautiful warm brown that reminded me of chocolate milk. I usually am good about before and after photos but that is one room that I was so excited about redoing that I totally forgot.

My next house in Midland, ON was a rental. Since the same furniture from the last house was moving in, I repainted with the same muted colours but dared to go a really bright green in the bedroom so the white Ikea furniture would really pop. Paint is a perfect way to cheaply and easily upgrade your home as well as show off your personality. I like a pretty environment with calm colours to come home to after work and to calm me after being "on" all day. I lived there for less than a year but the landlord sure loved me for leaving the place nicer than when I had moved in!

The next 2 houses, the rental duplex and the one I bought in Medicine Hat, AB, guess what colours I chose??? SAME SAME! I mean, it matched my furniture beautifully!!

I only got as far as painting the living rooms in both homes and in my first home that I bought on my own, I ran into trouble at the entrance way. The vaulted ceiling and lack of a large ladder stopped me in my tracks. At the time, I was single with a profile on a dating site called Lavalife and after ignoring a fellow for a year (who showed interest by "winking" at me twice in that year) I finally dared to reply even though he didn't have a picture and his handle that began with Countryboy. To me, it sounded like someone who was a country radio listener and I didn't want to date someone who had a preconceived notion of who I was by what I sounded like on the radio. Mind you, it's the norm for country radio dj's to use their real names and it's all about being your real self on the radio so I am who I am and it's a great compliment when people say I sound the same on the radio as I do in person!

Well it turned out to be a good decision to respond AND he had a big ladder! Along with a truck to deliver it to my place! I was a little concerned about not hitting it off with him and him finding out where I lived as well as having to see him again when he picked up the ladder. We met for the first time at a bowling alley where my friends were in a league. I invited him to join us for a beer before delivering the ladder so my friends could check him out. I worried for not. He actually went to high school with my friends and they had known him for years and if they gave him a thumbs up then it would be safe to borrow his ladder.

I finished painting the entranceway but never picked up a brush after that since I was so busy getting to know him, going dancing, meeting his family and embarking on a new relationship that was far from dull. Now, over 6 years later, through ups and downs and the trials and tribulations of a blended family, I have picked up the paint brush several times. I have repainted rooms at his place as well as my place, which we completely repainted and renovated and sold when my daughter moved out to attend university in Edmonton.  I also dared to change my colour pallet to Rona's recycled paint collection with the same classic tones but a bit bolder colours. Dune. Stone. Beach. Cotton. Unfortunately I ran out of time to repaint the basement bathroom in a beautiful blue/green called Ocean so have saved the unopened can to use at his place...now OUR place... and now I look back and smile. I dared to change to new bold colours just as I dared to change my life.