Two walls of the study painted. Still hate plain purple. Went back for a bolder greyed purple instead.
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I have a confession to make.
I hate purple.
I used to like it as a child but I met too many people who are seriously obsessed with the color purple. One lady I worked years ago covered her work area in purple: purple stapler, purple gel typing rest pads, purple chair, purple notepads, purple stickies, and plastic purple jars filled with purple ink pens. I don't see people as obsessed with...say...orange...but I have met or heard of people (Prince, anyone?) who seem to harbor some type of crazed manic obsession for purple.
I generally try to stay away from purple as much as possible but if I hate purple so much...why, oh why, did I decide to paint an entire room in pure purple? Well, for starters, I cannot seem to escape it. Other then certain wimpy pastel shades of lavender, Purple is generally a flattering color on me as it is on most people with yellow tones. I have several items of purple clothing and even more shades of purple eyeshadow. My vanity seems to outweigh my distaste.
Recently, hubby and I have been trying to choose the right color to paint our study. The hallway leading into it is a pigmented warm beige. We wanted the hallway to transition seamlessly into each room. We debated between pale grey, light blue, light olive green, or even red.
Red was quickly tossed to the curb. It was overly used in the earlier part of this millennium and was often heinously used as a single "accent wall". Red is also the color of anger, passion, and makes people alert and hungry. Not the right choice at all for a studying sanctuary.
Pale blue was the next choice and nearly won the day but we purchased the house with 3 blue rooms already. One blue room, an awful neon Tiffany blue, was quickly obliterated but a bright princess blue bedroom remains. I actually don't mind the Princess blue (like Disney happy blue) and think it'll be really cute for our future kids. Hubby is fighting to repaint that too but we shall see about that! Neverthehless, we both agree that there is already too much blue for yet another blue room.
Green was quickly banished from further usage so that left me with purple. Purple, in small quantities, is also a fun accent color in an otherwise neutral colored room. That isn't surprising since most neutral furniture and wall colors are beige and we are no exception. The carpeting in the study is a warm honey color and purple looks so good with yellow tints. After reading through various design magazines, we bit the bullet and went for it.
Our first trip to Home Depot yielded a wimpy pastel pink test paint. The second trip was too dark of a gray. For our third (and final) trip, we took a copy of House Beautiful magazine with us and color matched the shade of purple they considered one of the top colors for the year.
There.
Now that 1/2 of the room is covered in purple, I am again having second thoughts. A little patch of purple is not intimidating and it actually looked more grey but an entire room in grape hyacinth is truly a sight to behold. Once it dries, deepens, and the decorations move in, I may like it more but for now, it is a LOT of purple. It is certainly bolder then anything I usually do and change is good. Besides, I have become a master painter since we bought this house and I can always repaint it down the road. I may even augment it with some lovely purple damask though a la dwellings & decor:
Yes, I am liking the purple damask wallpaper. I think it will do the purple room some good.
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