There's A Seal in my Living Room!

The Hallway

It's amazing the difference a little paint can make. I've never had the courage to go this dark before. Remember the color? I mentioned it in a previous post. It's from Martha Stewarts paint line & it's the color "Seal". I love it! I'm so glad that I was brave enough to try it. Original artwork at end of our hall is by my friend Kevin Llewellyn (Please be warned his website does contain graphic nudity). I attended Ringling School of Art & Design years ago. Although I never finished I was lucky enough to meet the most amazingly talented friends.

I seriously had that little paint chip up on the wall for over a month. There were a few more like it all over the house. I have to admit I was a little nervous. I wanted to see what light would do to change the color throughout the day. I learned this trick when working for my old boss as an interior design assistant. Sometimes you can think a color will look a certain way only to have it change when the sun goes down. As I watched the swatch I always liked the deep dark charcoal grey. I felt it would really accent all the wonderful art I have collected from friends over the years.

This is the wall right outside the girls room. Kind of a wasted space for any larger artwork due to the thermostat. I decided to add an original painting from my friend Chris Ryniak on the top (can you guess who the painting is of) & some found art underneath. It's a piece of a broken skateboard I found in a parking lot a few years ago.

Before the room felt so cold and stark. Now that the long wall is painted it's warm & inviting. A perfect background for my painting from my friend Shawn Barber. It is one of my favorites. His work is just amazing. He was the catalyst for me to start painting again. When I was pregnant with Aris he came into town for a tattoo convention. He encouraged me to keep working on art even if it was for a few minutes a day. He said there are no excuses & that hard work is the only way I will become the artist I want to be. 

If you have one continuous wall I have always felt you should have continuous color. I don't know what they were thinking when painting this wall. It looked horrible. I'm all for green paint but the green paint in here is a little on the split pea soup side. I love split pea soup, don't get me wrong, but it's not the feel I'm going for. I moved my little sign from over the entryway door to over the laundry room door. It looks perfect there now that the wall is all one color.

I'm sure it's hard to really tell a big difference in these two photos but the wall looks amazing. The pea green adds a funky glow to the newly painted wall. I will be painting the other walls very soon & then it won't look so strange. This wall will eventually be a photo wall for all of the family photos I have.

It took me most of Sunday to edge the hallway. We have 4 doors and a closet in there, but once the edging was done the rest was easy peasy. Monday I rolled out the main parts of the wall in less than an hour. There is something to be said for nice paint. I paid a little more for the Martha Stewart line. I can't even tell you how much nicer it went on than other paints I have used. What you see on all the walls is one coat of paint. Most dark colors take two-three coats depending on the texture of the wall. I couldn't be happier with the results & will use her line of paints again.

All in all this project cost a whopping $26! However I think it looks like a million bucks. My only complaint is now I realize how badly the other walls need to be painted, lol :)

Please drop by tomorrow. I'll be sharing our Halloween Hall decorations that the girls & I worked on for Family Home Evening. Hope you all are having a great week.

::I'm linking to::

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