The Evolution of Our Library & The Right Color

I thought I’d pop in and share with you my latest pandemic coping mechanism – painting and repainting a room until my family and friends think I’m off my rocker… I’ve been a little absent lately when it comes to Instagram and keeping up with what everyone else is doing and how everyone else is decorating this holiday, and a part of me is missing that connection. But there’s a good explanation for where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing: I’ve been painting and repainting our library! (Please send help!) After the fifth or sixth color had to be replaced, I figured I have either lost it or, this is my twisted way of dealing with the pandemic, with being confined at home far too long. (To give you an estimate: I’ve tried about six or seven different paint colors so far, only to return to Linen White, by Benjamin Moore.)

The day of our move: Our library & family room started out as a spare bedroom no one ever used, except for storing boxes and luggage.

The truth is that our home is nowhere near perfect, or picture-worthy, and it may be a good while until we get it to a point where I feel proud of our work and completely comfortable with sharing images of it. I am a perfectionist, to the point where it hurts both my paint-brush-holding-hand, and our decorating budget.

Our home library / family room two summers ago (September 2020) – our contractor disappeared soon after I had taken these pictures, only to return around Christmastime (December 2020).

For those of you who are the business minds out there and are wondering about the costs of repainting a room so many times, the sustainability of my model comes from the fact that I’m doing all the painting – the money we would have paid someone else to paint the library went into the different gallons of paint, plus a little extra for my trouble 🙂 .

Our home library / family room in December 2020 – progress on the builtins was painfully slow at the time.

Decorating for someone else always comes easily to me. I have objectivity and a clear vision of what will work well for a space, and usually a paint schedule is the last decision I make, once all the furniture and fabrics are in place. For my own home, however, either because I’m in the midst of things, or because I know the many different options and directions I’d love to try out and experiment with, my vision gets blurred and I end up doing crazy things, like painting a room half a dozen times. Now, the fact that the walls can still take on paint is a miracle…

The construction of these bookshelves took about ten months in total. We started in August 2020 and finished in June 2021. We were so excited the day our contractor finished that we primed all the shelves within a couple of days!
Our library / family room soon after the construction work was finished, primed and painted Linen White. At the time we were still waiting for a larger area rug and window grilles. I ended up relocating the sconces to our bedroom and chose wrought iron ones that have an Early American look and feel to them and a better scale.

When it came to choosing the right color, I have tried greens, blues and tans, beige, and all sorts of grays. Nothing looked right! The blues and the greens were dark and too cold for the mood I was after, and the grays and tans looked too washed out and uninspiring in this shaded, north-facing room. I have tried expensive paints and cheap paints, I have tried popular, so-called designer colors, and no-name colors. I even considered a bold French Rose (a hot pink by Behr, instantly vetoed by my husband), and a dramatic Empire Blue, both seen below.

Defeated and tired of all the painting I had done after work and on weekends, for months on end, I went back to white. It was safe, it was nice, but it wasn’t terribly exciting or interesting once it was up. I kept thinking that there had to be a better color for this room out there. It turns out, there was… All I had to do was listen to what this room wanted (and needed) to be – a warm and cozy destination space within our home, where the wall color sets the tone for everything else in the room. 

New sconces, new rug (which my husband and I painstakingly cut to fit the nooks and crannies of the room, to mimic the look of a wall-to-wall carpet). The roman shades and café curtains were a DIY project I can’t wait to share with you soon.
Our library last week, before deciding to try “one more” paint sample…

I thought about whether or not to share this with you… I was reluctant because I didn’t want you to think that I am certifiable but I’m repainting our home library once again, the seventh (and hopefully last) time, because I think I have found it. The one. The color to put all my other color options for our library to shame :))) I didn’t want to go back to the paint store (it’s a small town and word gets around), and since I had a sample of Farrow’s Cream on hand from a recent project, I gave it a try (more out of desperation than anything else) and, bingo! I love it, and it’s exactly how I want our home library to feel like: light, bright and uplifting, but also colorful and warm.

Three coats of FB Farrow’s Cream, applied in a rush on the corner bookcase. I love how it makes me smile each time I enter the room… Hello, yellow!

It’s the coldest room in the house and yellow has that instant warming effect… How come I didn’t see it before? Why did I only look at the popular colors, the blues and the greens or the sophisticated and proper grays, when a happy, buttercup yellow was obviously the right choice? Perhaps I was prejudiced by what I thought would look good, and not what was needed. After all, how many yellow rooms have you seen on the cover of magazines? Not that many, right? And just like that, my vision got clearer… 

Now I’m off to paint the rest of the room – I hope I’ll be done in time for Christmas. Anyway, in trying to find the right color, the following questions and guidelines – had I asked and answered them in all honesty – would have saved me some serious time & dollars: 

1) Try to strip away all the noise and look inside your heart, not your head. How do you want your room to feel like? is a much better question than What do you think your home should look like? 

Happy and cheerful, quiet and serene, interesting or subtle? Sophisticated or playful? I wanted playfulness and warmth yet I kept looking in the wrong places. Each color has a distinct personality and affects our mood more than we realize. I know all that for clients, why was I reluctant to apply this knowledge to myself? 

2) If no one else but you will ever see this room, what color would you choose then? Is it the same as in 1)?

3) Pay attention to your gut instinct (it’s there for a reason) and not what’s trending on social media. I though I had this one down but apparently I didn’t. Find a color that feels in your heart of hearts, right. 

4) Just because a color looks good in a magazine, it doesn’t mean it’s going to look good in your home. It’s been styled, edited and photoshopped until it no longer looks anything like the real thing.  

5) Try as many samples as needed, ideally on a white background, until you get an emotional reaction to a color (aim for that gut reaction). Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, as long as you learn something with every misstep and discard colors and a direction that won’t work. Mistakes help us get to know ourselves and our limits better. 

6) And last… If you’re painting wood, always use a brush, preferably one with a silicone handle so your wrist won’t cramp 🙂 

Happy Monday! 

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19 Comments

  1. ellen clairmont
    December 20, 2021 / 3:01 pm

    I love a soft yellow room. It’s such a cozy color and it goes with everything. Years ago, I read a book written by Rosamund Pilcher. She described a yellow room with pale yellow silk drapes. I could never get that room out of my head and when it came time to redecorate, I copied it. I’m still in love. I’ve learned to always follow my heart and not to go with all the new trends. Have fun with your new library. I love it!

    • Eva Contreras
      Author
      December 21, 2021 / 4:11 pm

      Thanks, Ellen! That room in Rosamund Pilcher’s book sounds lovely!! Do you rember the title?
      Hope you have a joyous holiday season!
      xo, Eva

      • ellen
        December 22, 2021 / 3:55 pm

        Sorry, Eva, I can’t remember the title of that particular book. I’ve read all of her books, some probably more than once. She’s very descriptive in her writing. From the English countryside to a cozy kitchen with an Aga, or an elegant yellow room, you feel like you’re part of the story. Now, I’m going to have reread her books!

  2. Linda
    December 20, 2021 / 3:07 pm

    I can completely understand this — the right color is SO important. It looks like you landed on the right spot. And the window treatments and covered shade look incredible!

    • Eva Contreras
      Author
      December 21, 2021 / 4:12 pm

      Thanks, Linda! Wishing you a happy holiday season! xo, Eva

  3. Yarrow
    December 20, 2021 / 6:27 pm

    I also spent time agonizing about paint this year. We sold our home on the east coast and moved back to the Midwest, where we had spent many years. We rented there, luckily, as we bought a house 3 blocks from where we had lived for 17 years. The house had good structural care, but the woman who had owned it for 37 years had never painted inside. So it desperately needed paint. I spent quite a lot of time reading and learning about paint, and then bought a blank notebook, and some sample pots, and spent two weeks out in the garage painting page after page in 55 degree weather, so I could fly out to hire contractors and a painter. I chose BERH ultra pure white. I wanted it in the same color in all the finishes, walls, ceilings, and moldings. It has the highest rating for reflecting any light available, not that I knew there was a rating for that. There is no gray or black in it, and the undertone is yellow. I absolutely love it! We had never had an all white room before. And the colors change so quickly as the wind blows the trees outside. The only negative is that the painter decided I would not like the latex trim and went ahead and painted it in am acrylic with strong grey undertones, which we didn’t find out until we moved in.

    • Eva Contreras
      Author
      December 21, 2021 / 4:15 pm

      Thanks for the paint tip, Yarrow!
      I’ll make a note about Behr’s Ultra Pure White. I haven’t used it yet but one can never have too many references to try in times of need. Wishing you a happy holiday season!

      xo, Eva

  4. Lauren H
    December 20, 2021 / 6:39 pm

    The color you have settled on looks great!! Thank you so much for sharing your progress. After we moved in to our house I paid professional painters to paint our future nursery room. After it was complete, I panicked about the color, decided to try a dark accent wall, which I normally hate, then decided the accent didn’t look right with the light grey walls and started to paint them white before ultimately painting everything back to look exactly like it did after the professional painter had finished. And I wasn’t even pregnant yet! My husband definitely thought I was certifiable. 🙃 But it was something I needed to explore in order to commit myself to my original choice. (Also an expression of my stress and anxiety during our lengthy infertility journey.)

    • Eva Contreras
      Author
      December 21, 2021 / 4:18 pm

      Thanks for sharing your experience, Lauren! I am happy things worked out for you and your family!!!
      Wishing you a great holiday season!
      xo, Eva

  5. Lynn
    December 21, 2021 / 5:13 am

    Once again, your honesty shines through. Your Number 3 is the Key: follow your gut! It was a long journey to get where you are, but oh, so worth every painful painting minute. The room now makes you smile and invites you in to stay-exactly what you wanted for this room in this corner of your home. I love it!

    • Eva Contreras
      Author
      December 21, 2021 / 4:20 pm

      Thank you so much, Lynn! I appreciate your kind words! Trusting that gut feeling is not always easy to do, both in life and in decorating, but practice makes it a little bit easier… Wishing you a joyous holiday season!
      xo, Eva

  6. Kris Eisenzimmer
    December 21, 2021 / 6:22 am

    Thanks for sharing your library updates and the final painting endeavor is perfect. What you put in the shelves will add so much color and texture. I enjoyed your advice on following your own instincts and vision. I usually go for how I want the room to feel and make my choices based on that and I am usually never disappointed. Texture of fabrics and furnishings also gives me a warm smile. Thanks again for sharing your personal ups and downs of decorating.

    • Eva Contreras
      Author
      December 21, 2021 / 4:35 pm

      Thanks, Kris! You’re absolutely right… There’s so much more to a room than the paint color and I can’t wait to style the shelves with rows of books and decorative objects. Rugs, fabrics and throw blankets are that rich final layer that brings everything together… Thanks for following (and cheering me) along this journey!

      Have a lovely holiday season!
      xo, Eva

  7. Kris E
    December 21, 2021 / 6:23 am

    Thanks for sharing your library updates and the final painting endeavor is perfect. What you put in the shelves will add so much color and texture. I enjoyed your advice on following your own instincts and vision. I usually go for how I want the room to feel and make my choices based on that and I am usually never disappointed. Texture of fabrics and furnishings also gives me a warm smile. Thanks again for sharing your personal ups and downs of decorating.

    • Eva Contreras
      Author
      December 21, 2021 / 11:07 am

      Thank you so much for your kind comment, Kris! Wishing you a happy holiday season! xo, Eva

  8. Janet Tortora
    December 21, 2021 / 10:52 am

    You have the patience of a saint!

    Is is so difficult to find that perfect color but I believe I would have settled long before. Good for you!

    • Eva Contreras
      Author
      December 21, 2021 / 4:24 pm

      Thank you so much, Janet! What I have is the stubbornness of a mule, and every once in a while it pays off :)))
      Wishing you a happy holiday season!
      xo, Eva

  9. ljohnst1029@gmail.com
    December 22, 2021 / 7:02 am

    Fabulous!!! Eva, I have been teased and poked fun at for my devotion to F&B, but I am never disappointed. I love the “Cream”. I have Farrow’s Cream in my mudroom and I am so happy with it. (F&B in 6 of 8 other rooms also). My husband agrees now that they have curated their colors to all be winners. I just love your library and the window treatments and the new SCONCE!!!!!!!
    Laura

    • Eva Contreras
      Author
      December 22, 2021 / 3:28 pm

      Thank you, Laura! I am so happy you love the changes we’ve implemented so far!

      And yes, FB colors are definitely winners! There’s a depth of hue and richness of pigment that makes them complex and ever-changing throughout the day and with the seasons. It’s like paying for one color and getting at least ten extra hues.

      Wishing you a happy holiday season!
      xo, Eva