While Dave was digging with The Beagle on Saturday, I was confidently applying thin and even coats of green spray paint to the formerly cream colored lamps from the dining room. Said lamps were $5 each at the thrift store and looked like this (with Target shades. I won’t say how much the shades were because it makes the lamps sound lots more expensive. They were Target priced):
Then I did this to them:
And then I brought them inside and put their Target shades back on them and stood back to admire my work:
Shiny!
Then Dave came in and looked at them. He didn’t like them. “I don’t know about the color,” he said, “it doesn’t seem quite right. Maybe they should be orange?”
Clearly, I thought to myself, Dave was insane. Or at least handicapped by poor color sense. I dismissed his critique immediately.
Then my friend Kristi came over. She didn’t like the color, either, but she didn’t suggest anything crazy like painting them orange. “Hmm….” I though to myself.
So. I don’t know. I like them green, but I’m now on a quest to find at least one other person who agrees with me, because if no one else likes them, then it’s possible that I’m just….wrong.
I have been envisioning pops of green in my blue rooms for awhile now. I think I can trace the inspiration to this house tour from Apartment Therapy. It is also a colonial (though, at 4500 square feet, I’m not sure how boxy it can really be), and I love pretty much every single thing about it. And I’ve had this particular photo stuck in my head since I first saw it:
green table and owl against blue walls. Pop! Anyway, anyone want to weigh in? Green? No way? What color SHOULD they be? Or should they go back to the thrift store from whence they came to be replaced by some more excitingly-shaped lamp?
I love the green but I also think red would look good with blue walls!
ooh, yes. I love blue and red together!
Well it’s true. I don’t like them green, in that place. And I do see where you got the blue and green idea. But that house tour room is so eclectic, so funky, in a way that your dining room is not. Look at the crazy stools, and the awesome mirror, and the unexpected heart pillow! Funky! Your dining room has more of a traditional feel, as it stands.
So while the green owl and table hold their own with the other things that are doing their own thing in that room, your green lamps are standing there awkwardly, like a party guest who misunderstood the dress code. Especially when I was looking at two of them together. Against that Nantucket Fog, which is completely, utterly the perfect color for that room. It’s so soft… the green is jarring to me, which is maybe a less positive spin on a pop of color? LOL
Anyway. Love your house, love you, all will be brownies!
I find your honesty disappointing ;). J/K. Hmm…yes, I see what you’re saying. I think the core issue here is that I’m uncomfortable with how traditional the room is (perhaps it’s a deeply embedded fear of encroaching middle age. Perhaps I’m blogging to avoid paying for therapy…). and how to accomplish funky if you don’t start with green lamps (embellish unexpected hearts on the sad pilgrims?)? Related side note: I’m itching to paint that buffet.
Oh well, if the green lamps are just the start of funkifying the room, then maybe it will come together. I think you have really great style, and an eye for unusual things!
Figure out what color on the buffet, because I’m going of buy some plaster of Paris to make chalk paint. And I will share.
I’m afraid it will make my mom sad if I paint it! I mentioned it when I first saw it, and she said, “oh, I wouldn’t paint it! The wood is beautiful!” and…it is, but….I don’t know. Time will tell.