Freshening up your visual surroundings can lift your spirits and help you transition when life changes – especially if you are one of those people who is particularly effected by her environment.
Kids grow up and move out. Careers change. Sometimes marriages end.
A bit of targeted redecorating can help you step forward with a fresh new start. Another lift of spirits can happen when you paint the ceiling the same as the wall color – let me show you when it’s a good idea to do that.
Maybe your ex-husband only liked dark colors and plaid, so that’s the kind of bedroom you’ve had for many years.
bedroom before
And now you get to choose what YOU want since you don’t have to worry about someone else not liking it. We chose Benjamin Moore Healing Aloe for this room.
fresh start bedroom design
In this bedroom, we didn’t even have to purchase new furniture. The fresh new color palette was established with paint color and new fabrics. See the pretty bedside lamp? The burgundy lamp base was painted gold and the dated shade was changed out with a new one from Home Goods.
The new curtains we chose are lovely, aren’t they? And you gotta love this fun art that just makes you smile when you see it.
The bedroom actually looks larger – in large part due to the lighter paint color than extends up and over the room. In this situation, I chose to paint the ceiling the same as the wall color. Notice there is no crown molding at the intersection between the ceiling and wall (more on this topic here).
This is when you should paint the ceiling the same as the wall color!
This not only downplays any odd angles, it also “takes the top off” the room altogether! Now the sky’s the limit . . .
Here, you’ll see a new color scheme in the living room. This is where it started before:
before
The dark television is now tamed with a dark color in the back of the bookcases. The gray-green walls freshen up the whole space and give a fresh perspective to the entire room.
Think a dark color will make your decorative items disappear? See for yourself how these colors pop against it:
befores and afters of the bookcase
Even the breakfast area got a bit of a clean-up. Dated valances and light fixture were removed, and the new wall color and orb fixture are the beginning of a new look for this area. New curtains will be selected eventually, but sometimes we have to take a step at a time!
I hope these befores/afters spark ideas for your own fresh start!
Speaking of fresh starts, I’m excited to help a new group of home stagers launch or advance their careers this Thursday through Saturday in my next Expert Psychological Staging certification course! I’ll be super-busy through the end of the week training, so this is the last chance I’ll get to post this week. In my previous post, many of you gave me some GREAT ideas for the paint color names for The Decorologist Exterior Paint Color Collection for LP SmartSide!!! Thank you so much!! I’ve also been posting more colors and color combos on The Decorologist FaceBook page, so if you have the time I’d love for you to pop over there and add your suggestions on those.
Here’s a new set for you to consider. Please leave your suggestions for the light and dark gray blues in this combo that pair with white trim and a gray roof:
Thanks again for all your help choosing these paint color names!
Love the Healing Aloe on the walls and ceiling! This bedroom looks like my master bedroom and I would paint the entire room one color as well after seeing what you did here. However……..popcorn ceiling ???
Aww, the blasted popcorn ceiling!!!
I’m currently using my laptop that is covered in more dust than I ever want to see or experience in my life because my husband just finished stripping popcorn ceilings in the kitchen and family room. He assured me that once he was done I would want him to finish the rest of the house. I am POSITIVE that is not going to happen no matter how much I dislike the popcorn ceilings. This kind of mess is best left for a vacant home! Anyone that is trying to rebuild a life and get a fresh start should not be worried about or dealing with the removal of popcorn ceilings. If the owner of the home is reading these comments, then I just want to tell her to ignore the popcorn comment. Please don’t do it. Let the next owner do it. 🙂 Love the new colors in your home and wish you the best.
New Suit Gray
Between Blue (because it’s between dusk and twilight, but not quite either)
Thanks, Molly – how about just “Gray Suit?”
That’s better! 🙂
You did it again! Can you divulge the source for the curtains?
Sherry, the curtains are available to the trade only, so sorry! I could get them for you though. If you want to find out more, contact my office manager at [email protected]
How sweet of you to do this.
Beautiful ideas. Thanks for your excellent taste.
Well, thank you, Nancy, for your kind words!
Hi Kristie,
Just curious, is that bedroom painted Benjamin Moore Healing Aloe or does Sherwin Williams have one by the same or similar name? Love that room!!!
My bad!!! Good catch, Cathy – YES, it is actually Benjamin Moore Healing Aloe, NOT Sherwin-Williams (that one is different). This is why it’s so important to make sure the color name AND the number match up, right?
Great advice about painting the ceiling and angled walls the same color! Even if a darker color is used, it makes the room seem larger when your eye is not forced to stop where the color cuts off. Also, Leigh, I recently saw a great solution for getting rid of popcorn ceilings: apply shiplap or paneling directly over the popcorn! I’ve seen photos of this and it looks great and is much less work than scraping them.
Misty Eyed (lighter gray)
Elephant (darker blue gray)
Seagull (Gray) and Nor’easter (Blue)
Love Healing Aloe for a bedroom. Exact color of my bedroom. Simply white in trim. Calming color! Bedding in white.
I think it’s time to get rid of the popcorn ceiling and paint the ceiling 🙂
We painted our bathroom popcorn ceiling and walls two years ago So far it has held up beautifully.
Would you say it’s a good rule of thumb to always paint the ceiling the same color as the walls … if there’s no crown molding? That room above looks so much better with the ceiling painted the same color, but since it’s angled, how does that translate to a non-angled ceiling?
Joy, if the color is fairly light – absolutely. That’s a rule of thumb for me when there is no crown molding!