One Room Challenge Week 2

Welcome back for week 2 of the One Room Challenge!  I’m so happy you are here to witness my spiraling downfall into self-doubt, indecisiveness and overall design insanity.  Seems like I’m being overly dramatic right?  I wish.

You see, last week I fooled you a little bit with this perfectly laid out design plan that seemed so cohesive and well thought out.  Remember this?

Well,  that little plan didn’t happen effortlessly.  If you read my post on my Design Manifesto (born out of this debauchery) you would know I made a big design mistake. 

Not my first and sadly probably won’t be my last.  As with many creative types, one spark of an idea becomes an obsession, and an obsession becomes an all-consuming desire to create this spectacular thing I can see in my mind so clearly.  Making it come to fruition in the way I pictured is the tough part.  Here’s what I saw that led me down the primrose path.

Isn’t it gorgeous?  The thing that sent me over the edge was the blue ceiling.  In my mind I thought, “A blue ceiling is so awesome and a little bit unexpected!  Plus it’s just paint!  Paint is cheap.  I could so do this and make a dramatic statement and people would be amazed I was able to create this incredible room just by painting my ceiling blue.”

The thing that should have made me tap on the breaks ever so slightly was the fact that I have 8’ ceilings in the bedroom, not a trey ceiling.  I don’t have big windows that will flood the room with light and I don’t have an expansive room making the 5^th wall fit seamlessly in with the rest of the room.

Why would I stop to ponder such logical thoughts when anyone would agree with me that the blue ceiling in this room is beyond awesome?

Did I pause?  No.  Like a politician, I scoured the internet for statistics and information to justify my decision to paint my ceiling a dark blue.  I ran across a few articles stating painting the ceiling a dark color will make it recess and make the ceiling appear taller.  Wha? (in the Minions voice).  Who could argue with the facts of a scientific method?  Then I found this picture which boasted that if you pull the dark down onto your white wall it will make the ceiling look even higher by fooling the eye.  Wha? Wha? (Minions…you got it).

After I closed my mouth and took the silly look of bewilderment off my face, I ran to my husband and followed him around the yard as he was doing yard work convincing him of my genius (aided by Pinterest).  Now, a less seasoned husband would have questioned me and tried to convince me I was crazy.  He would have said things like…

Nancy, do you know how hard dark blue is to paint over?  What if you don’t like it?

Nancy, I would think a dark color would make the room feel dark.  Are you sure?

Nancy, aren’t you always saying you want our house to be light and bright?

But, my husband, who has been married to this creative type for 21 years, knows fighting a battle with me when I’m obsessively convinced of something is the equivalent of running out of the trench and standing unarmed in no man’s land. He’s a wise man.

So onward and upward I went…literally.  The walls went white and the ceiling went blue with a blue drop down of about 6”.  I was so proud when I finished painting it.  I ran quickly, grabbed my phone to text my mother-in-law, and stood in the hallway ready to snap a picture and declared, “I hate it”.

I asked my mom, my husband, and my design bestie Sheila up the street.  They all said they liked it.  No, no ,no.  The ceiling looked lower.  Maybe I didn’t pull the blue down far enough on the wall?  Out came the paint brush again.  I know what you are thinking…you’re thinking why would you do more work to something you didn’t like?  I don’t have a good answer for that.  Seriously, I wonder that about myself often, if you figure the answer out to these elusive questions, let me know.

After all of the drama, I decided I needed to pause (#youthink?) and really contemplate what I want in my home.  I kept coming back to the design I put in place in my master bathroom and decided everything in there is everything I love.  Thus, the birth of the design manifesto.

“History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”  -Winston Churchill

So, since I’m writing this little post, let’s pretend I didn’t run down that navy blue path and that I had a clear vision for this room right from the start, m’kay?

Hello redesign.  Hello repaint (again).  Hello wood on the ceiling.  So, this is where I sit right now.  The blue will be painted over and a wood “trey ceiling” will be going up.  I already feel a sense of peace over my decision.  I just need to stay off of Pinterest before I see some other idea to become obsessed over. 🙂

Be sure to check out what all the other featured designers and guest participants are doing to their rooms over at Linda’s blog, Calling It Home.

Also, if you missed my week one…you can read about that HERE.