Let’s paint this room… turquoise!

{image via Aerin Lauder}

When I rolled back into town and into the home I affectionately call “The Frat House” yesterday, I saw it with a fresh set of eyeballs and realized some SURRIOUS things could stand to change.  This is tricky considering a few factors:

a) I have to respect the fact that it’s not my house and I don’t have free reign.

b) Budget constraints.

c) Anything I invest in is subject to ruin… at the paws of my roommate’s adorable dog whose favorite pastime is puking (…maybe I’ll just forgo rugs?) and/or beer & wings getting flung onto things.  Gotta love boys.  The dining room is still holding up okay (my stuff overtook this space on move-in day…  whoops they’re welcome.)

So, there’s all that.  Common areas will be a challenge, so I decided to hire the local painters to start in my room… and there is no way to get more bang for your buck than a fresh coat of paint.  Plus painting is always a doodle that can easily be un-did, if need be.  My room is about a 10′ x 10′ shoebox space, and currently looks something like this:

All the walls throughout the house are a sort of “contractor beige” at this point.  My bedding is all white (with the exception of the lilac & coral euro shams I made from a kantha I bought at Solo on Cedros in Solana Beach – diy on that soon – and the John Robshaw Jammu bolster from Bixby & Ball).  AND I would foam at the mouth to see my vintage Gerald Thurston lotus lamps pop against some pretty jewel tone….  like TURQUOISE!!*$^#^#@!!  Cuz hey.  Why the &%^$ not?  I just flipped back through my Color Palette board, and everything remotely close to that color is emphatically labeled: “This color makes me so happy!”  So there you have it.  This shoebox is about to transform into a little jewel box.

 {image via sara mueller’s insta}

The tricky thing will be picking the right shade of turquoise/aqua/blue…  I do also have these fellas in my room to work with:

(VIOLET RUG)

…and that rug worked great with turquoise painted on the ceiling:

(BRIGHT EMERALD DRESSER)

Note: This is an old photo from my Columbus house.  Details on that dresser redo here.

So I don’t want to go all Pee Wee’s playhouse…  then again, Monica & Rachel did it in their apartment, so I might just throw caution to the wind on this one.  Plus Jamie Meares says we should #daretomix, and when she talks, I usually listen.  If this were my house-house, I’d probably being doing much more neutral, grown-up things, and I’d probably save the crazy for the powder room.  But in the spirit of the new year and of this being a color that makes me giddy, I say let’s just do it.

I’m trying to hit on somewhere between a Caribbean-esque turquoise…

…and a bright, perky, pool blue.  Because the dresser is green, so I don’t want it to blend in with the wall.  I wouldn’t go as deep as the blue Carrie did:

Maybe something like this?

This blue is stunning too…

{Image source unknown}

Or the color of this tile, which is a (lot) watered-down:

{Image source unknown}

The color in this hallway of the new HGTV Dream Home is close, but maybe a bit too green Tiffany’s Box aqua still:

This is just about perfect:

I’ll let you guys know how it turns out!

xoxo,

*Click on images for photo sources, unless otherwise noted.