As a professional painter I have the luxury of seeing a plethora of colors in each house I”m working in. That makes it so much easier for me to pick and choose colors for my own rooms. I get to spend several days with the new color of someone else’s walls and even though colors look very different in different settings I can get a ‘feel’ for the color I’m working with. I was working in a friend’s house and she chose a lovely shade for her den and kitchen- Benjamin Moore’s Texas Leather (also a featured color in the Pottery Barn catalog). I never would have picked this particular color for my own house, but the more I was around that color, the more I fell in love with it. So, my dining room is now that color! My apologies for the barren walls…I still don’t have my dining room properly put together yet:

In my house the color has more of a green hue. In my friend’s house it had more of a brown hue. I love the white trim and my antique white cupboard against the lush walls.

I also fell in love with another Pottery Barn color (Pine Cone Brown) and decided to paint my bedroom walls. My bedroom has had white walls for 12 years! It was a big change for me but I am so glad I did it. I’m in love with this color. It makes the room so restful and cozy.

I painted the dresser I purchased at an estate sale (for $18!!) white

And one more big change…a kitchen remodel. It’s only a partial kitchen remodel. I have a mishmash of different cupboards in my kitchen – the old built in ones that go from floor to ceiling (which I love) and the newer not-so-great ones that I will have to live with until I win the lottery. I’m adding another set of base cabinets and shelving on one end of the kitchen, getting new countetops, a new sink, and a new stove. I’ll be posting before and after pictures of the progress. It’s going slowly but it will be well worth it when it’s done!