Before and After

 Let me start by saying this picture is deceptive. Here is the "before" picture of our greatroom. 

In this photo, thanks to the magic of cell phone cameras, the wall color doesn't look as dark as it was. However, our home was extremely dark. What's worse was that the house isn't terribly large and the color made the home feel confining. 

The blue wall color was more like this. 

This color. On every wall. 

Though a lovely color, it was a bit much for a small space and a quite suffocating. Couple that with the fact that sunlight seems to bypass East Texas and you might understand why I now own two SAD lamps and still wanted to scream as I wandered my home in search of a cheery space. 

While it took our painters four six maddening days to get our four rooms painted, the work is more or less done. I don't have everything put back. I have curtains on order for the window next to the fireplace--the other ones were a garish mustard-brown. My mantle is still bare, waiting for pictures and my father's stained glass to be set back, as are the walls in my kitchen and bedroom. However, the new color is cheery. Now our home has much more light. We took the original paint color and lightened it 75 percent.  

As a point of trivia, I'm under the impression Tessa picked the paint color when she listed the house last year and ordered some minion to paint it. I've often questioned what she could have possibly been thinking. If we sell, I'm not painting it back to that color. 

Here's the after picture. Also because of the magic of cell phone cameras, this wall color looks darker than it is. Think of it as a whisper of blue. It cheers up the rooms. I can live with this color. Or, the next owner can find someone to paint over it if they can't live with it.