I confessed a little secret of mine over on Instagram the other day. And that is that I am a bit (okay, maybe a lot) insecure when it comes to color. As a quilter, this is an area that I would like to work on and overcome. So when I got the opportunity to get an advance copy of Change Your Home Change Your Life With Color by Moll Anderson–I jumped at it.
Here’s my second confession–I’ve barely started it, but I wanted to share something that came as a bit of an epiphany yesterday when I sat down do dig into it. I sat down with the book, my bullet journal, pencil, and a cup of tea. I had a feeling that I was going to want to jot down some notes as I read.
It turns out that not only does that book have stunning photos and a lot of great information–but it’s a bit of a workbook as well. One of the questions she asks you to examine is what is your favorite color and why. And what is your least favorite color and why. She contends that a lot of our color choices are shaped by our life experiences and it is worth a few minutes to dig a little deeper into those memories.
Picking a favorite color for me is extremely hard. But I just went with my gut on it and wrote down “blue”. Why? I’m not sure–but the word “calm” came to me. I do, in fact, love many, many shades of blue from navy to beachy blues, to the palest of pale blues. The beach house (below) from the show Grace and Frankie is perfectly decorated with many shades of blue (with some pops of orange–blue’s complementary color).
Photo from houzz.com
In fact, the only think I don’t like about that set is the green dishes–which leads me to my next revelation.
Photo from Hooked on Houses
For my least favorite color I immediately said “green”. There are many shades of mediumish green that I find repulsive. Then I thought about why and didn’t really know. Then I realized that my house is dripping in green. I have a green sofa, a green chair, I have sage green walls in my bedroom! The bridesmaids dresses at my wedding were forest green! (Very on-trend in 1996, BTW.) Do I really hate green? Obviously not. At least not always. I have come to the realization that I am sick of green. That’s the real problem here.
The fact that I think I don’t like green and am surrounded by it then lead to the further self-revelation that for all my professed love of blue there is none in my house. Zero. Not a thing. Hmmmm.
Luckily, I have an opportunity to remedy both of these situations very soon. The green sofa I spoke of is leaving soon to be replaced by a new, neutral sofa. I would love to take this opportunity to lighten up what is a quite dark room in my home with not only a lighter sofa, but maybe even a lighter rug and ottoman–what I currently have in that room is very green/burgundy (also very on-trend circa 1996). Here is my opportunity switch things up with some blue throw pillows and… I’m not even sure yet–but my mind has been opened.
I still have quite a bit of the book to explore, but–I can’t wait to find out the next chapter in my color story.
they grow up too fast 