Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a planner. My friend Kim still teases me for reading the entire owner’s manual for my car before I bought it. 🙂  Well, my husband and I bought our home about 2 1/2 years ago, and ever since we purchased it, I’ve been planning and plotting improvements, updates and personalizations to the house.  You’ve already seen my guest bathroom update here, and I’ve also seeded (and reseeded) our front and backyard lawn, updated the front yard landscaping with some much-needed trimming and mulch, pressure-washed the house, treated the deck (which was green from mildew and neglect when we moved in),  replaced our A/C unit for one with much more capacity – 4 ton ( the previous AC unit was a 3-ton unit, which did not even come close to cooling our 1,970 square foot house during the peak of a Columbia, SC summer), repainted both spare bedrooms (one of which I turned into a home office), and we just replaced the carpeting in all the main areas of our home with gorgeous SwiftLock Plus laminate floorings (we have a 125-pound Rottweiller mix with bear-sized claws that would have destroyed real hardwood.)  We are also planning on replacing the rest of the carpeting, including the bonus room upstairs, for a truly gorgeous home that ‘s a lot easier to clean, with a lot fewer allergens!

Now I’m ready to get my painting on, and I’m in the planning stages. To be honest, Otman really hates painting, and is not into this home improvement stuff AT ALL, and is willing to hire someone to do a lot of it. I’m totally fine with hiring someone to install the hardwood flooring – while it’s not mentally difficult to do, it is insanely tedious and terrible on your knees and back! Painting and decorating, however, brings the satisfaction of a job well done in my life, and I appreciate the process of watching the walls and room transform.  Plus, the money saved doing it myself can be put toward other projects / fun stuff in the future! I love walking into a room and knowing that I have not only made it look nicer, but that my hard work was actually an investment in my home as well – and I always learn new things with every project, too!

Now that the office, guest bathroom, and guest bedroom are all painted, I feel it’s time to paint the hallway in between the three rooms. I’m planning on painting that area a very neutral light taupe color, so that it is a smooth transition between the other rooms. I like to have different colors, but I don’t want people feeling like they’re walking through a kaleidoscope when they roam around my house!  The entire house was pretty much left as-is the entire ten years the previous owners lived in it – this means buttercream-yellow flat paint throughout almost the entire house. This  paint shows every scuff and is impossible to clean, and although somewhat neutral, still leaves much to be desired in my opinion.

So… I’m planning out my next room to paint.

Here is the color of my dining room as it was when we moved in, and as it currently stands:

What do you think? Some people like it, and some don’t.  I’m on the fence. There are days I’m okay with it, and definitely days I want to change it. There’s one thing for sure, and that is I wouldn’t have picked it out on my own to put on my walls, although it’s nice for a shirt. 😉

I’ve been playing around in Photoshop with some different colors for this room – what do you think? Let me know! I’ve whipped up a handy little poll at the bottom of this blog so you can vote on your favorite! It’s quick and easy! Don’t forget to comment below if you’ve got anything else to add – I’d love to hear your ideas and tips!

Don’t forget to vote! I need all the help I can get!

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South Carolina Wedding Photographer, Portrait Photographer and Boudoir Photographer
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