This week, the painters came. It was time. When we moved into our home we inherited the previous owner’s color scheme–beige with a dark red accent wall and a foyer that was sponge-painted with sparkly gold paint. It’s only paint, we rationalized. We can change it. Eleven years went by, other things took priority, and I did my best to decorate around it. This week, the painters came!
Before they arrived, we had to decide on colors.
“What do you think?” Ed asked.
“White, ” I said.
“White?”
“White.”
Many Shades of White
Interestingly enough, it’s a bold choice. Most folks opt for some color. (Is white a color? Is it the absence of color?) Anyway, I was taking my inspiration from “Desert Modern” décor. Look it up. It’s a thing, and since we live in the desert it captured my imagination.
“Walls the color of white-washed adobe are the perfect backdrop for warm desert colors,” the Pinterest post promised.
Of course, what they don’t tell you is there are hundreds, maybe thousands of shades of white at the local paint store, and not one is named White-Washed Adobe. After squinting at paint swatches taped around our living room for several days, I finally narrowed it down to two.
“Deb, just pick one,” Ed pleaded.
“Ok, here, ” I said as I squinted one last time and grabbed a sample off the wall hoping it was white-washy enough.
The Big Reveal
During the painting process, our home was like a construction zone. A team of professionals swooped in, taped, primed, and painted. I stayed my office/studio venturing out to take a peek now and then. From what I could tell, I was going to like the new look. After a two-day flurry, the painters packed up and left. I stood in the middle of the living room.
“It’s a lot of white.” I said.
“That’s what you wanted, ” Ed said. “Think of it as blank slate. Now we can start creating the look you want.”
Enter Creativity
“I Walk into a White Room…”
That’s the title of the first chapter of Twyla Tharp’s book The Creative Habit. This is how she starts each of her choreography-design sessions. She walks into the empty white studio and begins the creative process of bringing music to life.
I’m not a dancer, I’m a writer, but the creative process is the same. My brain begins to re-arrange bits and pieces of my room. Could the sofa move here? This picture looks better there. We need a pop of color over here. A plant perhaps?
It’s like moving dancers around on a stage or words on a page. Playing with color, texture, and shape in this way stimulates a burst of creativity that’s bound to spill over into my work as a writer.
Work in Progress
It’s a work in progress. Our original sofa and chair was repurposed with a hand-knitted throw and some new accent pillows. A rusty-brown saguaro lawn ornamant in a green pot makes for an interesting art installation. Some thrifted pieces have added interest.
Fixing things up, moving bits around, adding in some new elements. Yeah, I’m working on my manuscript.
Threads of Thought
What experiences with paint colors or painting a room have you had?
What do you do when you are blocked creatively?
Don’t you wonder who comes up with the names for paint colors? What’s the funniest one you’ve come across? (And if you find White-Washed Adobe let me know)
Grab a copy of my book Out of the Crayon Box: Thoughts on Teaching, Retirement, and Life http://amazon.com/author/debravandeventer
Never send Hubby alone to choose colors. He stained our deck a honey gold and painted the shed lavender. He swore the swatch looked like a shade of beige and, of course, he didn’t read the name of the color. With the green grass our backyard looked like permanent Mardi Gras! Needless to say both the shed and the deck were repainted and restrained before spring was over.
Sara, that’s a great story! Glad it all worked out in the end, but a Mardi Gras backyard sounds interesting! Ha Ha!
Our daughter just repainted her entire house after ten years. She chose white, white and white also. Before she moved in she selected colors and her dad spent two weeks painting every room a different color, a couple of them twice because the color didn’t turn out like she wanted. This time professionals came to do the job. I think white is the trending “color”. You certainly can let your creativity lose with a white backdrop, a blank canvas. She has a creative designer’s eye that makes everything look like it is in the right place. Her house looks very fresh and she completed a remodel with new cabinets, floors and fixtures. It is a brand new house without leaving her lovely neighborhood.
I love it! I’m glad she liked the result. I will have to say the white backdrop isn’t everyone’s style, but now that we have been putting things back together in new ways, I like it. It looks fresh and inviting. Hmmm, I like the idea of new cabinets…maybe in the future.
For years my homes were the ‘white’ palette. I switched a long time ago for shades of color, but no reds and sparkles of gold. White does offer a place to punch up with bits of color and is striking. You mention paint names which is a fav of mine. I have to be drawn to the paint color and its name, or it’s a no. Surprise–many of my short stories and poems come from a combination of these colors and names. I look forward to more of your decorating. Thank so much Debra.
I too am drawn to color names. I like the idea of using color names for inspiration for poems and stories. Thanks for reading!