The only room I painted more than once and why I think I will love it this time

There’s only one room in my entire house that I have painted more than once and not only did I paint it twice, I am actually on my fourth attempt to get it right. This is unusual for me. My house is not primarily made up of neutrals or safe shades. I enjoy color and it feels like when I pick a color- it sticks. Usually I am picking the color because I love it and the design falls into place around it. From my muddy-mocha shade in the front of the house to my cream colored bathroom, I have preserved much of my original vision for this house from over 15 years ago.

But for some reason the laundry room, directly off the kitchen and tied to the expansion of our garage and mud room, never settled into it’s perfect hue. When we bought the place it was a white room with hunter green trim, doors and shiny painted paneling behind the farmhouse sink. There was a red and green apple themed wallpaper border that coordinated with the ruffled window valances. Somewhere on a roll of actual camera film there may be a better photo of this.

After demo of the room I painted it a deep rich shade of burgundy- similar to this year’s featured color from Behr-

But the ceiling was white and I never liked the look of the transition where the two colors met. It was a distraction through the glass door off the kitchen. This prompted me to eventually choose a light and airy blue that I figured I could paint both the walls and ceiling, to give it a more seamless look.

This was actually very pretty and it complimented the light fixture. This was a color that I think I did love and would have kept if not for the unfortunate…

…day the laundry room ceiling came crashing down.

I think a part of me was very stubborn about not wanting to paint it that same color again after this. When we built the addition and added the mud room it felt like a clean slate and a chance to try something else. I had a blue in the office but green, arguably my favorite color, was absent from any wall currently in the house. I ordered stain for the concrete floor in the new mud room in a shade of green and convinced myself I wanted to go down this path instead.

To match the tile and counter top, and remembering how I liked the lightness that airy blue had offered- I chose a green that reminded me of a vintage color from the 60’s. Unfortunately it wasn’t a color I loved, it was just a color that worked, albeit temporarily.

The mud room connected to the laundry room was tough to decide what to do with. It was the “new construction” portion added to a 119 year old house. We pulled the original built in from the dining room (that we never thought we’d use) out of the barn to give it some character. This stained piece dramatically changed the color scheme. As the vision for the mud room grew and changed, my placeholder green color in the connecting laundry room became quickly obsolete.

The biggest turning point was the addition of the wallpaper mural- that I did absolutely fall in love with!

This mural had everything I needed. It had the muddy-mocha color from the front of my house in the mountains, the creme from my bathroom in the sunset and the blue from my office in the sky. It was obvious that the best way to bring it all together was to find the right shade of green this time, and that meant going much darker. Something more like the Benjamin Moore Vintage Vogue laundry room I previously admired:

So fast forward to today. Still a lot of work to be done but a new color that I can honestly say- I love.

And the reason I think this color is here to stay is so simple- I don’t know why I didn’t do this before-

I walked the sample around the house and realized- not only did it look good with every other color I already have, I could also imagine it being the main color in every room. And a color you can imagine embracing everywhere is certainly a color you can love for a long time!

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