Elephant poo, anyone?
We took a week off work to paint our house last week. I always thought we'd paint the interior a shade of white. Classic. And with all the artwork we've got, it would be a simple backdrop to all of those works we have stashed behind cupboards, because there's not enough room in our flat to hang them all. Although I enjoy coloured "feature walls" in other people's houses, they always seem to scream "LATE 1990S!!!" at me from across the room, so decided that we could do without them. Stay with the white. Simple, versatile, understated.
To be fair, though, the colour was chosen as a unifying backdrop for a collection of vintage greek and turkish rugs that I inherited from a very dear friend of my parents - a bachelor, and an avid traveller and collector, who knew just the person who would value and love such a collection. Surprisingly, the colour that seemed to be in common for all of these rugs was the green on our bedroom wall. So I think it will all eventually be ok - when I trot out the changing exhibition of rugs, you won't see the elephant poo for the beauty it is meant to frame and enhance. Or that's the theory, anyway!
But heck, I'm not exactly sure what happened, but my plans for classic style went out the window within the first day. Maybe its because of the metres of snow all around, and we're all kinda sick of white around here. Perhaps it was a reaction to the fact that the boys, when asked, wanted to paint the different walls in their rooms each a different colour. In order to garner a truce, we decided the boys rooms could have one coloured walls each, and proceeded to choose colours based on complimenting flooring choices (carpets, which haven't yet been installed). Hey, they were the kids' rooms anyway, I wouldn't have to live with banana yellow and powder blue anyhow! (ok, ok, to be fair, they could probably more aptly named "sunflower yellow" and "ocean on an overcast day blue" - whatever). And then suddenly, before I knew it, the coloured feature walls were taking over the third floor... and I was there with a roller, painting MY OWN bedroom wall a colour which can only be described as "elephant-poo green". Jem talked me into it, and although at the time I supported the decision with a "marriage is about compromise" mantra, I'm not entirely sure it was a wise decision. Jem keeps telling me the colour should really be called "pistachio", or "olive". It's a grown-up colour, he comforts me. Hmmmm....
To be fair, though, the colour was chosen as a unifying backdrop for a collection of vintage greek and turkish rugs that I inherited from a very dear friend of my parents - a bachelor, and an avid traveller and collector, who knew just the person who would value and love such a collection. Surprisingly, the colour that seemed to be in common for all of these rugs was the green on our bedroom wall. So I think it will all eventually be ok - when I trot out the changing exhibition of rugs, you won't see the elephant poo for the beauty it is meant to frame and enhance. Or that's the theory, anyway!
The other two rooms turned out great, by the way. Fun and colourful, and the kids seem more than happy with the prospect of living in these two rooms. So far, so good. Only downside is that it took us a whole week to finish up the third floor. Only two more floors to go!
