Shades of Beige

A few months our next door neighbors had the trim and siding to their house painted white. What an amazing difference it made. Naturally, I began to plot and plan my way to new trim. I wanted white, too. But really...did we want to paint our cream siding white? And make upkeep when we didn't have any?

The answer is no. But...I wanted to get rid of the horrid brown trim. And lighten things up with a cream color to match the siding. And maybe paint the shutters. But my first step was to match the color of the siding to the new trim color.

And this matching. Well...do you know how many shades of beige there are?

I think it just might be an infinite number. There are beiges in the green family. In the blue family. In the pink family. In the orange family. In the yellow family. Not too many just in the beige family.

And they all have great names. Like Parachute silk. Riviera Beach. Venetian Mask. Cafe Cream. Heavy Cream. Deep Cream. Plateau. Little Linda. Tuolumme. Which I can't even begin to pronounce. Coastal Beige. Eternal beige. Architectural beige.

So many choices. I wonder who has the cool job of coming up with color names. And why they felt that Little Linda was a shade of beige.

So...what about you? What color is the trim of your house? What about your shutters and front door?

It's time for a Grand tour...

Today I thought we might take a tour of my room. It's my favorite room in the house - my haven. I can go in and close the door. Maybe even lock it to keep out the restless natives. I have even been known to post a sign on the door that says "do not even knock unless you are on fire."

We moved into our house in May of last year -- and really the only changes we made to the house was to paint. We painted our room a rich, brownish color. I LOVE the names that paint companies make up to describe the colors of their paints. Our room is painted "llama." Our bathroom is "China Rain." We got some new furniture...a new quilt...some "old" furniture - meaning that it was in our house, just not in our bedroom...new electronics, and a whole new look.

This is the view of the master bedroom from the door.

The above photo must have been taken on a Thursday. The day the housekeeper comes. Because this is what my bed usually looks like (mom...just look away now!)

Above my bed are these really cool prints that my grandmother brought back from a trip to Thailand:

I sleep on the right side - the side closest to the window. We bought these night stands when we moved into the house. We needed them because our bed is so high...that our old night stands were 1/2 a foot below the bed. Makes it challenging to see the time. Or to hit the snooze bar. I have a huge pile of books on my nightstand and a very cute picture of the girls.Next to the night stand is my glider that I got when I was pregnant with Katie. It is a really comfortable chair - and it's nice to sit there and read. Above the glider is a framed ivory fan that my grandmother brought home from Japan. My grandfather was in the airforce and was stationed there - so my mom was there for about 4 years in the 50's. We have a lot of things in our house that are either from there or are Asian inspired. My mom said that my grandmother had the fan framed when they got back to the states (their next assignment was Oxford, Mississippi)...but that she was not happy with the job. She didn't like the way they arranged the tassel. She wanted it to hang down, not be tacked to the side.

Here is the view of the other side of the room from in front of the window:

To the right of the window are my Ikea bookshelves. I love the way we managed to have them come around the corner of the room. I am not one to hold onto books. If I like it, I usually pass it on. Most of my shelves are filled with photo albums, pictures, Longaberger baskets, and really smutty books that no one is willing to admit that they would like to read. Oh, and there are CDs.

Because we ran out of room on the other CD shelf: See all those boxes? We have lived here for almost a year. Do you think they'll ever get unpacked or moved out of the room??! Definitely taken on a Thursday -- look at the vacuum cleaner marks.

At the foot of the bed is my dresser. I would really have liked a nice mirror above my dresser. But, no, I have a ginormous flat screen tv.

My husband has this uncanny ability to enter online contests. And win. But usually it's second prize. Or something. He has won two grand prizes (I think): this TV and the stainless steel grill that's on our deck along with a year of free steaks from Omaha steaks. Yum! He has also won: a smaller flat screen tv (that one is in our basement), luggage, a hammock, gift cards, at least 3 cars (uhhh...that would be toy cars...matchbox types), a plethora of t-shirts, hats, backpacks and chip clips. Lots of things that get donated to Goodwill.

Another view of the dresser with the ginormous tv:
And a close up of the picture of the kiss (aren't we adorable?!):

And last on our tour: the master bath. This is a very narrow area. If I was making this house, I would have done pocket doors -- would have made things a lot more accessible. But no one asked me.

Below is my side of the bathroom. See all those spots on the wall? Just to the right and under the window?
Here is a closer view.

Know what it is? Hair dye. I am not sure how it got there. I don't shake my head or anything. I just have this natural ability to get the dye EVERYWHERE. Just needs a little touch up paint. Sometime. Maybe.

And here is one of my favorite parts of my bathroom - the view outside of my window.
I usually keep the blinds up. One morning I even saw a mother deer with her fawn...fawns...three of them! I would have missed it if I cared about privacy. You can see the creek and paths that I blogged about the other day.

And that brings us to the end of our tour. Maybe we'll do my other favorite room next time: the kitchen! (I can see you will be waiting with bated breath for that one.)