Friday, January 21, 2022

Painting My Living Room Black {room makeover}


A couple weeks ago I got the impulse to paint the light aqua blue walls in my formal living room black. I told my mom to calm down, it would be OKAY. I told my nieces that no, this did not mean they should buy me goth wear for my birthday.

 I do lots of things on impulse. A couple days later I made the big nine mile drive into town, convincing my daughter to go with me, and we spent a whole three minutes pouring over all the paint chips Lowes had to offer before we settled on Corduroy Black by Valspar. I got two gallons in satin, gave my big beautiful blue piano away (replaced with a used Clavinova) and we started painting the next day. 


Tori liked painting the first few hours. But these walls are bears to paint. We're talking grizzly, not cute little smoky mountain black bears. It was obvious when I shared my progress photo why people thought I was painting stripes!  Nope, not stripes. You just have to use a paint brush to paint in ALL. THE. GROOVES. Twice, since one coat didn't quite cover. The thick paneled walls may be pretty but seriouslyyyyyyyyy.


Shall we just skip right to my boat load of "after" photos now?  Yes, let's do that! Now let me just say, when the sun hits this room, it looks a lot more like a deep navy than black. "Corduroy Black" definitely has some blue undertones - which I'm down with. 

Now without too many more comments.... Here we go:




My cats love the new look. So many rooms to hang out and catnap in, but now they won't leave this one. I'm glad they approve. Otherwise, I'd have to paint it another color and that's just a lot of work for a cat like Nelson who never really learned how to show appreciation. 


This feline insisted on licking her behind while I was engaging in this little photo shoot. I kept making weird noises at her so she'd look up from her hygienic activities and not ruin my pictures. 


I was on the hunt for a piece of art to go over the mantle. You know where I found this moody beautiful ship painting? At the Parma Antique Mall, that's where! One mile down the road.


The frame was hand made and had more of a reddish tint to the finish than I preferred. Nothing the Ryobi orbital sander didn't take care in a few minutes!



This beam is a shock to most people. Why? Because it's made out of Styrofoam and we found several of them up in the garage attic when we moved here. The finish was dark and shiny and just really clashed with the black walls.  I never really liked that about it anyway, but my mom thought she could use tan acrylic paint to fix the problem and by George, she did! I wasn't holding my breath and had a wet rag ready to go just in case it looked like crap. It didn't. Way to go, Mom.




I'm not sure why it took me seven years to think of putting shelves over the desk in that corner... nothing every looked right over the computer screen. Shelves - BINGO!


I'm pretty excited this old chair I had matches my new desk so nicely. And the good news is, if you want one, I have one for sale in my booth at Michigan Ave Antiques in Parma! It's a lighter color wood and it would look perfect in your office. Yeah, YOUR office. Trust me.What's that? Ergonomical? Does it matter?



Before you see the next photo, can I just go back seven years when we bought this house and show you what that wall looked like? We built the surround without spending a penny - just digging stuff out of our barn! (See the original post on the DIY fireplace surround HERE.)





My only regret is this rug I ordered. It was half the price of my other option and shipped the next day. Enter my lack of patience and hubby saying why would you buy the more expensive one when this one is fine?? But sometimes you just don't know until you see it! The description said ivory and light gray, but it gives off more of a light blue vibe. Not what I was going for. There's still a chance I can roll it back up and ship it off to Amazon... but my hubby is extremely annoyed at the idea. Eek. And do you have any idea how hard it is to find a pretty 12'x15' rug that I don't have to take out a mortgage on?


I loved my black lantern wall sconces that were here, but obviously that's like using peach colored ink to put a tattoo on a Caucasian. Corduroy black walls begged for gold!





I think this Clavinova was one of the best investments we've made in awhile. My middle child gave up his dream of banging on the drums a few years back and has a newfound interest in playing Snoop Dog on the piano. 



My favorite piece of furniture has got to be this Eastlake dresser. Any guesses where I picked it up? Nope, not a yard sale or on the curb. I actually paid for this beauty - but I'd say it was a great deal at the Parma Antique Mall. Yup, there's that store again....


My coffee table is a bench I actually pulled out of my mudroom. 
It's still filled with hats and mittens. 😂




One last parting shot of my fireplace... because it's my favorite part of the room! My decorating guru friend Maran said I couldn't put two plants on top and two on the bottom... too symmetrical. Now usually, she is the be-all end-all for me when she has a strong opinion. But I added llamas and I think I made it work. When I asked her if the llamas made it okay, her text simply read "hahaha". I have no idea what that means. 


Thanks for stopping by!

I'd love to see these photos on your Pinterest boards - biggest compliment I could receive!


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3 comments:

  1. As always, magnifico! Not really sure that's a real word, but hey if you can have a fake fireplace beam I can use fake words lol

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  2. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…

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