As I noted in the power of paint, I’m a big fan of white ceilings and white trim, but I like color on the walls. And not just color, colors, plural. I try to like flat color – it’s clean and modern – but really what I like is texture and layers.
For example, here’s our bedroom wall at home, which I did to look like a wall I saw in an Anthropologie catalog.
My Anthropologie paint job
Over the last few weeks I’ve been working my way through the Schoolhouse. Two weeks ago I attacked the master bedroom. I’d rolled a cream called Canyon Cloud – it was very simple and clean.
Canyon Cloud (flat) walls with white (flat) ceiling, white (semi-gloss) trim, and Water Mark (eggshell) door
But the more time I spent looking out of the windows, which face a forest, the more the room spoke to me. And it didn’t want to be cream. It wanted to be greenish, like the forest only lighter and brighter, and it wanted movement and depth.
Part of my paint collection - Pandora's box or treasure chest? It's always a bit hard to tell at the beginning, which is why my husband said "Uh oh" when he walked in on this particular scene
So it got undertones of bronze, beige, blue, teal, and tan.
The beige palette - and because I'm a sucker for metallics, I added some gold too
If you have textured sheetrock, this is an easy and forgiving technique. It’s also great for your triceps (think of the “Wax on, wax off” scene in Karate Kid). Just choose your palette, rub paint into the textured areas with a sponge, and rub the excess off with a damp paper towel.
Undertones
Then to bring it all together I added an overcoat of yellowy green that I mixed myself.
Yellowy-green with a little water to make it more glazey
Use a sponge to rub the overcoat but don’t press too hard – the goal is for the overcoat to coat and sit on the top layer of the texture and to coat and modulate and blend SOME of the undertones you’ve added but not to completely overwhelm the undertones – remember, you’re going for texture and movement.
Done! (ignore the red cover on the smoke alarm; that will go)
And then it got floaty green curtains.
With floaty green curtains
I suspect it’s going to be obvious that I painted the Schoolhouse in the dark dead depths of winter, but I don’t care.
