Musings on Wythe Blue

I've been dying to show you a picture of my newly painted living room and dining room. It's a gorgeous color, Benjamin Moore's Wythe Blue. Only I'm not sure exactly what color it is -- aqua? blue? green? gray? grayish-greenish-blue? And no photo I've taken has managed to quite capture it.

This is it:


And this:

And so is this:

It's truly a chameleon shade, changing with the time of day and the forecast. I think I like it best at night, when the lighting gives it a brighter turquoise glow, but it's always soothing and calm.

Quick Fix: April

Look, we're all busy. Unless you are lucky enough to be a full-time decor blogger (kudos to Young House Love! I heart you guys!), your decorating time is likely limited. And if you're like me, your budget is, too. Now that I've blown my tax refund on a new couch and new paint (I heart you, too, Painter Bob) for my bedroom and kitchen, there won't be many big-splash changes for me over the next year.

So what's a design-loving girl to do while she saves up for her next big project? Indulge in a few fast, relatively cheap updates, that's what!

This is the first in a series of posts on simple things you can do to spruce up your house without blowing your budget ...

Make a Switch
Change out your light-switch plates and outlet covers. It makes a HUGE difference, especially if, like me, you are currently sporting cracked, dingy, yellowish-cream-colored plastic numbers. It can be daunting (and pricey) to replace every.single.outlet in your home at once, so just go room by room whenever you get the time. And the rooms don't all have to match either.

I chose this glam beaded style for my bedroom, where you only see a few outlets (feel free to save some cash and skip the outlets no one can see; I changed out all of mine, but I am OCD like that):

A simpler silver look for the living/dining room (there are a LOT of visible outlets and too much glam might be, well, too much):

And in my bathroom, I went with a mod no-visible-screws white laquer switchplate. So no matter your style, there's a option that'll work.

Have fun! I'll be back in May with another Quick Fix!

Kitchen Before & After

Finally, it's done! Well, you know, mostly done. Nothing is ever really done at Chez AD.

First, let's take a peek at the kitchen before:

Not bad, exactly, but not me at all. Lacking the funds or the energy for a full renovation, I decided to give the power of paint a shot. I liked the existing Santa Cecilia granite countertops, so I worked the color palette around them.

I chose a soft green, Benjamin Moore Guilford Green, for the walls and a warm off-white, Benjamin Moore Mascarpone (from the Aura line), for the cabinets. I replaced the antique gold knobs with cool rectangular oil-rubbed bronze pulls to tie in with the copper flecks in the granite. I have new copper pendants to replace the old builder fixtures, but I haven't gotten those switched out yet.

That's about it! Over time, I'd like to replace the appliances and the floors (the tile is fine, but never looks clean -- drives me insane!), but I think this little makeover will tide me over for several years until I have the funds for an overhaul.

Now, for the after photos ...

The Couch Has Arrived!

Granted, the 6:45 am delivery time was a bit early, but I was still thrilled to welcome home my new couch yesterday. Here it is, in all its tufted glory:



Club Sofa by Arhaus in Bella Pewter

No, it is not blue, that's just my impatient photography at work. It's a true charcoal gray in a velvety microfiber fabric. Miraculously, exactly what I envisioned despite having a tiny swatch to work with. Also? It's huge, which is what I wanted, but still.
The yellow curtains are staying; the pale aqua walls will soon be a richer aqua (Wythe Blue from Benjamin Moore, to be exact); and I *think* I want to keep my two little white tables as a coffee table. They are sort of dwarfed by the couch, but I like their quirkiness (they are made of thick white felt with flower cutouts sandwiched between two thick sheets of acrylic) and their versatility. You can sit on them, jump on them (not that I encourage that), put a coffee mug and a magazine on them, get crayon on them ... they are truly indestructible. If only I had one more ...

My Favorite Mistakes

I loved this post today from Young House Love sharing their decortating mistakes. It inspired me to reflect back on a few of my favorite mistakes over the years and share them with you. Comment below to share yours!

Painting my bedroom screaming hot pink Italiano Rose. Long ago, back when my now ex-husband was young and besotted and wasn't yet totally burned out on painting, I convinced him to paint our bedroom three times in less than two years. Here's how. When we first moved in to the little two-bedroom townhouse, I was quite enamored with the Greek islands and wanted a bedroom to match. So the first color he painted was a royal blue, which I accessorized with breezy white curtains and framed cutouts from the Greek Islands 1999 calendar. It was my first real attempt at decorating, and it was nice, if unremarkable.

But I soon fell in love with a vibrant rose-colored duvet cover from Garnet Hill. Vibrant rose and royal blue? Yeah, not great, so I used my newly purchased Benjamin Moore paint deck to find the perfect wall color to match my new love. Italiano Rose it was. Did I test out the color first? Of course not. And while the color was a perfect match to the duvet, it was very, very bright. I wish I had a photo to share. It was pretty awful. My now-ex declared that I'd have to live it with it for awhile. As you can imagine, it wasn't long before he relented and agreed to repaint in the oh-so-lovely and soothing Silver Sage from Restoration Hardware.

{Note: In the next house, I painted the bedroom Benjamin Moore Olive Branch, which was a gorgeous backdrop to that bright pink duvet! Lesson: Use neutrals to set off brights.}

Not living in a space before decorating. I'm impatient and I hate disorder, so my first instinct when moving into a new house is to get everything done immediately. But that has led to all sorts of mis-steps, from buying furniture that I ended up either not using or not liking to painting rooms without taking lighting into account, to buying rugs that didn't work in the space (more on that below). One ill-fated rug aside, I did much better in the current house. By the time I redid my bedroom, I had lived in it for seven months and had a good sense of how I was using the space and the environment I wanted to create. For example, when I moved in, I placed my desk on the opposite side of the room from the tv and I put a couch in front of the tv. Well, I almost never sat on the couch and got annoyed when working at my desk that I couldn't see the tv! Now I've moved my desk over by the tv and created a cozy reading area next to it with my old chaise and I use both all the time.

Buying rugs. Pretty much any rug. Turns out, I don't like them very much, so anytime I buy one, I end up hating it in short order and off to craigslist it goes. I've wasted a lot of money on rugs over the years. Sigh.

Not buying second-hand/discount. When I bought my first house and starting buying "real" furniture, I was rather tunnel-visioned and shopped almost exclusively at Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, and Crate & Barrel. I liked that style and those stores seemed grown-up and legit ... not like the Ikea of my college and post-college years. I ended up with some nice pieces, for sure, but I also ended up with a heaping helping of guilt and regret when I got tired of them. To be fair, this was before Target started selling designer collections and Craigslist was all the rage. But still. I've learned, thankfully, and am thrilled with my daughter's room full of Shabby Chic by Target furniture, my new Ikea nightstands, and my Craigslist endtables. I'll still pay up when I find something worthwhile (my new Arhaus sofa arrives tomorrow!), but it's easier to justify those splurges when I buy $30 curtains at PBTeen.