Painting is one of the quickest and least expensive ways to give your space a refresh. Right at the beginning of January, I decided to finally take the plunge and enter the dark side. Well, ok, I’ve dabbled on the dark side before with the guest bedroom refresh, but this time, I painted an entire room, not just an accent wall.

     I obsessed over painting this space a delicious dark blue or green for months, but kept changing my mind as I wasn’t sure how I would like it, plus, it is very time consuming to paint this space with its tall ceilings. But I knew there was no escaping it once I started to dream about painting the room. By this time, I had already ruled out dark blue and knew it was going to be green, Benjamin Moore, Tarrytown Green to be exact. However, once the room was painted, I felt like I needed to paint the sliding doors on the bookshelf(originally a dark muted brown) to pop more against the green.

 A before of the room with the bookcase. It has such a different vibe and feel now!  My initial thought was to paint those sliding doors on the bookshelf orange, but I talked myself out of it because I thought since orange is my favorite color that I should try something new. Well,

I did and it lasted only a day. I wasn’t madly in love with the yellow and since I am such a passionate person, the yellow had to go.  So, I was back to having orange thoughts, but it couldn’t be just any orange because I didn’t want an orange that had too much yellow or too much black undertones.

       I remembered this orange candle that I’ve had for years and brought it to do a color match at my local Benjamin Moore store. That’s when I was introduced to thADVANCE® Waterborne Interior Alkyd Paint.  ADVANCE offers the application and performance of traditional oil paint in a waterborne formula that cleans up with soap and water.  Once fully cured the painted surface becomes very hardy which meant the sliding doors on the bookshelf wouldn’t get chipped easily. I bought a quart in a color called Jeweled Peach which  matched the candle beautifully. I also opted for a satin finish instead of high gloss.

I love the contrast between the pink(Benjamin Moore Pearly Pink) in the kitchen and the Tarrytown Green.

It goes beautifully with Justina Blakeney Nana wallpaper too. 

This is such a sweet spot to read.

Well, there you have it! The day was a dark, rainy, and cloudy one when these pics(except for the last one i took) were taken(which is why all the lights are on) but the colors still shine through. As usual, big thanks to Lea Hartman for capturing almost all of these images for yet another one of my projects so beautifully despite the weather.