Painting My Dining & Craft Room

I have a little confession to make. It’s been 12 years since I painted my dining room. 12 long years. I hated the color we painted it back then. But it stuck.

When we bought this house we said things like “we are never painting any of our walls white” and “we aren’t those kind of people” and “let’s use bold color everywhere” … we decided we were going to have a red dining room… but have you ever tried to choose a red paint for your walls? Every color we chose kept showing up pink. Then we just gave in and decided on the darkest pinkish red we could find. And here we are.

While I still love bold colors, my design style has certainly evolved… and maybe, just maybe, light colored walls aren’t totally out of the question. Once upon a married-without-children time I also proclaimed I would never drive a minivan and I love my Chrysler Town & Country, so I’ve been known to eat my words. 

Yes, I’ve lived with this bad color choice all this time. I found curtains that sorta suited the walls. I compromised with my decor to make it work.

It’s just paint, I told myself recently. I can change it…

Call it cabin fever or full-blown winter boredom, but this past weekend I finally got the nerve to just pick a color and go for it.

My Color Inspiration

We love vintage globes. I currently don’t have very many on display and decided that this would be the room I would dedicate to them… so this globe inspired my color choices of blues and golds.

As I mentioned here, I’m part of the official Country Chic Blogger Squad so I’ve been chalk-painting furniture with some of their fantastic hues. My new dining room buffet (a $5 thrift from my neighbor/auctioneer) is getting a new look in Elegance. So, this bluish gray color was definitely an inspiration for my palette.

Plus, these curtains from Target:

And, these lamps from the Phoenix Restoration blog:

Like the rest of pinners everywhere, I scoured Pinterest and home decor blogs for the best paint colors and found some shades I liked from a variety of retailers. However, we live in a small community and we prefer to support our local hardware store, which happens to be an independent retailer of Valspar paint.

We have always had a good experience with their paint, plus it’s a better fit for our budget. And who wouldn’t want to paint a room Happy Cloud… seriously, could this name be any more fitting for a room inspired by an old globe?!?

So there you have it… hopefully you enjoy this tiny designer insight before the final reveal comes together. I still have a few touch ups and vignette styling to finish up before I share photos of the room. But I can tell you… I LOVE IT!