After doing this content creation thing for 14 years I consider myself a professional at documenting my design process in a very public way, yet like a seasoned athlete, the harder you play the more prone to injury you can be. Or so I’m telling myself. Here’s my armchair theory – due to the sheer volume of games you play, and how hard you go at it on the court, you are proportionately more vulnerable to getting hurt despite your experience and “expertise”. I feel like with this house, I (we) had a lot of incredible plays that we really nailed–big ‘running it back for a touchdown’ moments that I love so much. But I messed up on this living room and it feels like watching myself miss a basic free throw to lose the game, over and over and over on the big screen. And after weeks of being very angry at myself for it not turning out like I had thought it would, I’m moving through the regret and creating a solution with a heavy dose of perspective. What I have to remind myself all the time is that A. This isn’t a real problem and B. I’m not a perfect design expert, obviously. The real value I can add to the world is documenting my design process, and often making mistakes so you A. don’t feel alone when you do and B. can avoid the same mistake or learn through my problem-solving. This is why I chose to be a design blogger and NOT an interior designer with clients (where you can rarely admit nor document your mistakes). So here I am, ready to talk through the regrets. And I’ve convinced finally myself that this is not game 7 of the tied world series. This renovation, this room, isn’t my last game. I made a couple of dumb plays, I blew an easy shot and I lost us this game. So after weeks of punishing myself, I’m lacing up and headed out on the court to win game 2.
The Before – 2 years ago
To recap: as you can see the living room when we bought it was super spacious but very dark. One of our main goals (that we admittedly obsessed over, almost pathologically) was to brighten it in every single way.
The room had three west-facing windows, which were blocked with bushes, and the north window didn’t bring in too much light. So we redesigned the house to ensure that this main space was bursting with natural light.
Additionally, as you can see the ceilings were stained very dark (almost burgundy) and the walls were also painted dark. Both easy fixes.
Where We Are Now – One Month In (Not Officially Decorated)
This is how we are living in it right now, one month in. There are so many good things about it and I’m extremely grateful that we live here. The space itself is obviously so much brighter (we really checked that box), the wood floors are stunning, windows and doors are so pretty, and the quality of the paneling and all the millwork from ARCIFORM is perfection. The sconces are classic (and provide excellent dimmable lighting), the original fireplace got a real upgrade, and overall it’s such a lovely flow from entry to the kitchen (where the camera is). So wait, what is so wrong with it? Well, It feels cold and unfinished to me, based on design choices that I MADE near the end. I think because we were chasing the feeling that we had at the mountain house – the sense of calm provided by nature, natural light, and a very warm minimalist vibe, I just under-did it and it’s too stark. And I’m not talking about the furniture – we don’t have our sofa, piano or artwork yet which will obviously add a layer. I’m talking about the paint color and paneling.
I Miss The Warmth Of The Wood
I miss the natural wood of the window casings and wall paneling before we painted them white (as seen above). We did a custom run of both pieces – the 12″ beaded paneling and the window casing (and both are really pretty when you get up close – Thank you ARCIFORM!). They were fabricated in paint grade poplar and were very, very expensive to both fabricate and install (as custom always is). If I could go back in time I would splurge even more on doing them in white oak and leave it natural or just wash in paint (like Anne did in her bay house which I can’t wait to show you), but wouldn’t paint over it completely. I feel like it’s a huge missed opportunity to have spent so much money on the custom run and the install only to not have them be a statement (solutions are coming, it’s not dire). Imagine if the paneling below the windows and the window and door casings were all in the same white oak as the windows?? So warm and cozy. And had I not seen the room with the poplar wood installed (pre-painted) I would maybe not know it was a possibility, but it’s like I can’t unsee it. I miss the wood right now. I might be obsessing about it and the solution might be easy and even better than wood. We’ll see.
I Wish I Had Mixed Up The White Paint Colors
I don’t regret painting the ceiling white, but I wish that I had chosen a warmer tone of white for the walls of this room (it’s Sherwin–Williams Extra White). I really love it in some of the rooms (mudroom, hallway, kitchen) but in here, combined with the paneling also in the same color, it looks like we haven’t chosen our color yet. Had I properly obsessed about choosing whites differently in each room based on what else is happening in there we might have realized that this room needed a warmer white that still read as white or hell, what I’m realizing even now is that this room needs a neutral tone or even a color. Brian and I were pretty close to a real fight about this – him saying that ‘white is white! they are all the same’ and I knew better, but I was exhausted, felt super alone and defeated, and just chose the same white for most of the rooms that we wanted ‘white’. I feel gutted, so dumb and I’m still mad at myself. It made me really doubt all of my decisions moving forward. And If you are like ‘it’s not a big deal! just paint over it!’, yes we can but unfortunately painting over semi-gloss wood paneling is a real thing. It really has to be sprayed, which means that everything has to be masked off for days, covered, sanded, primed, and painted again. We basically need to leave the house. All doable, but it’s a thing guys and WE JUST SPEND TENS OF THOUSANDS PAINTING THE HOUSE. I.e. redoing so soon makes me feel sick and embarrassed.
So What is The Solve? How Are You Going To Make it Better?
Ok, PROBLEM SOLVING MODE OFFICIALLY ENACTED. This room needs texture, depth, and color to make it feel warmer and more finished. I played it FAR too safe with the white-on-white thing and it’s time to fix it. Here are my ideas:
- Wallpaper the drywall, above the paneling, a light tone. I found a fabric wallcovering by Ashely Stark that is so gorgeous that I have been desperate to put it somewhere in the house. It’s an open weave linen that has tones of taupe and grays. Is it farmhouse-y? Nope. but neither is the living room right now so I’m less concerned about sticking to some OG vibes that are long gone, and instead just making it a really, really inviting room. You can see the fabric wallpaper here (and head to stories where I’ll show you the sample that just arrived).
- Paint the drywall a light color. This would be the easiest, most immediate solution of course – even I can paint drywall (again, not the paneling or door/window casings – YET). I think by doing this the white casings would look like they should – that they are framing the windows whereas right now it looks super unfinished (you can barely see the casings). If I’m being totally honest I didn’t want window casings at all – I like the deep jam, no casing look but lost that battle a year ago because that is a more contemporary look. But now that we have them we should highlight them, help them architecturally enhance the space, and add depth and detail. Having the drywall be a tone will at least highlight the white of the casings, which will frame the windows better.
- Paint all the window casings and paneling. Ok. So when we first walked into the house after being gone for a month, seeing it primed over all the pretty wood Brian and I both were like ‘Woah, Shoot. that is a lot of white’. The painters had finished almost all the other rooms but hadn’t painted the actual white yet in here, just the primer. So we quickly grabbed the Upward paint color that we had leftover from the doors upstairs and painted it on the paneling. We both felt like the room needed it and we really loved the color. Did we feel 100% confident? NO. We felt honestly like 40% confident, but we had no time. So dumb. We should have stalled the work, but we had pushed so incredibly and annoyingly hard to move in the following week that we didn’t want to be those people who were like, ‘Uh, guys? we changed our minds and want to play with paint colors for a couple of days’. We let our impatience and egos stop us from taking the time to make the right decision. So we said, ‘we like this color a lot – it’s a happy light blue, and we have the paint – let’s just do it all this color’. We didn’t want to go darker because we wanted it light, we didn’t want to go bluer because the kitchen tile is really the most stunning focal point that we didn’t want to compete with. Besides, the floors were covered so we couldn’t see the wood, and all the windows were covered so we couldn’t get a sense of the light or see the white oak. The tile in the sunroom and kitchen were covered so we couldn’t get a sense of color. It’s pin the tail on the paint color, blindfolded and our hands landed here:
We walked in, the next day and it was a hard “NO” for both of us. Brian mumbled something about being the easter egg house…what is a super sweet color upstairs was far too periwinkle down here. They had only done one coat and we stopped them immediately. No one wanted to be me less than me at that moment.
It was NOT going to work. So what did we do instead? As you can see we told them just to do the same white. How could it not look good? We love how the mountain house is white walls and wood windows and doors. But I was wrong and this room needed some contrast between the paneling, casing, and drywall and since the paneling and casing are integrated together (i.e. the interior window sill is the top of the paneling) we can’t only paint the window casings but not the paneling – they have to be painted together.
I mean, it looks pretty in this shot I know and after a few weeks of living in here, I do really like being in this room, despite me wanting to add more texture and depth to the walls.
But another option that we are seriously considering is painting the fireplace and/or cladding the mantel in wood (the floor brick still needs to be painted and we need to finalize the chimney to make sure we can use it).
It’s pretty as is! But it’s an option to help ground the room and add some drama and contrast. Brian is not in favor of this.
In this photo, it looks so pretty! I feel like I’m a little bit losing it and I want you all to know that I understand this isn’t a real problem. It all feels so dumb. So to lessen my frustration with myself I’ve started living in denial that I was the one that chose the white walls/white paneling situation. Instead, I am basically pretending that we just bought this beautiful newly renovated house and I’m just the new owner that gets the add my touch/layer to it, because the designer who renovated it chose a safe look. It’s an odd disassociation/denial exercise that has given me a bit of distance from the fact that this was JUST DONE, by me. Emily Bowser said this is such an enneagram ‘7’ way to respond to something – to reframe it in a way that is more fun and less painful, and I don’t disagree.
Just picture the walls above the paneling with a slight neutral tone – something that lets the casing and paneling pop more, frames the windows nicely, and lets the ceiling and fireplaces stand out, too.
Wallpaper The Entry? Yes!
Then in the entry, we want wallpaper and I honestly like 10 of the options, so I’m waiting to decide on the living room solution before I do the entry. The entry is so pretty as-is that I’m not worried about it looking beautiful. The living room is my problem child right now.
Now before you get worked up at my odd layout, we played with it a few ways but we feel pretty great about the loveseat + sofa + swivel chair combination (as of now). Of course, we wouldn’t typically have the sectional chaise cut off the love seat, but this is the sofa that we’ve had forever (from Article, it’s awesome) and have been waiting to design or choose the new sofa until we knew our layout which would dictate the scale, length, style, and color. It’s a domino effect (and I still have to design that dining nook, too). When staring at this shot I want to just paint the paneling and casing a neutral tone and leave the walls white, but that is a harder/riskier first step. I think some photoshopping is in order 🙂
I do love so many things in this room, though and I know the potential for greatness is there! And again if I hadn’t just finished a huge renovation and just made these choices I would be like ‘calm down and just paint it!’. And obviously, I’m so privileged to even call this my room that I don’t want to come off in any way complain-y.
What you can’t see is our kitchen which I am SO HAPPY with. THANK GOODNESS. And with the shared space with the living room, it means that I really have to consider the blue in the tile with whatever paint or fabric wallcovering we choose.
Now that I’ve for the most part forgiven myself for hastily making this room too safe I am excited to dive into the next layer to add more warmth. I’ve got this 🙂
Living room sources:
Rug: Amber Lewis For Loloi
Sofa: Burrard by Article
Leather sofa: Rejuvenation
Swivel chairs: Rejuvenation
Tulip wood side table: Target
Double tiered wood side table: City Home
Wood flooring: Oregon White Oak by Zena Flooring
Windows and Doors: White oak, Aspen Casement by Sierra Pacific Windows
Stairwell Color: Smoky Blue by Sherwin-Williams
Wall Color – Extra White by Sherwin-Williams
Sconces: Rejuvenation
*Photos by Kaitlin Green
