While the man was working on the floor, I broke down and had to get some color on the main floor. I couldn't take looking at the ugly baby blue that was so horribly applied any longer.

Um yeah. I know. It practically causes me to go into fits of anguish every time I look at it. This is what happens when well meaning family members don't know what the heck they are doing and won't ask for help. I'm guessing they ran out of paint, I really don't know. Obviously, they couldn't reach up over the stair case so they painted what they could reach. Loverly, don't you agree? I loathe looking at this botched up blue and can't wait to have it vanquished.

I knew I wanted a grey-green for the living room. This one is Behr's "Olivewood." It is kind of hard to think of redecorating with all your existing furnishings, because the temptation is to want to start fresh. But you know the checkbook tells a different story. Currently our living room at H1 is painted a soothing yellow that isn't too yellow, Behr "Calm Air". There is one accent wall that is a rich reddish brown. Our furniture consists of a leather loveseat, dark grey-green loveseat, and cream colored sofa with wood tables. We have art and throw pillows in that same dark red, gold, avocado green and pumpkin, with accents of purple and teal. I know it sounds crazy, but it works for me:

For H2, I wanted to change it up a bit, but still work with all our stuff. Because I love things like the prints on top of the bookshelves that my husband brought back from a market in Barcelona... and the teal dish I glazed last year when my girlfriends took me to a DIY pottery place for my birthday, I want to make some changes but keep most of these furnishings. I am really liking the Olivewood. It actually looks two shades different on some walls than on others, in a good way... like I went to extra effort. Plus the color just looks right in the space.

In the picture above you can see the bottom half of the wall by the front door was left unpainted. That is not because we were trying to mimic the crap job that was done with the blue! It was because it will be painted white in anticipation of the board and batten treatment we're going to put there that will run all the way up the staircase, similar to this one that I shared on Pinterest:

Elite Trimworks Stair Kit

Near the front door is this large window which looks out over the front yard. I know the wall looks burgundy but that is just bad lighting and my phone's camera. It is the same grey-green as above:

I can't tell you how nice it feels to see the calming Olivewood color when I walk in the door. It is like a sniff of a Yankee eucalyptus candle, a walk through a white pine forest... soothing and fresh, relaxing and happy. Yeah, all that from a can of paint!