Last week, I repainted the dining room.

Here’s a before:

Repainting wasn’t high on our priority list (we actually don’t mind the yellow that the previous owners had it), until we painted the kitchen blue, and then every time I looked from one room into the other, the contrast of the sunny yellow with the aqua blue felt like some kind of old-timey french circus tent. It was a pretty contrast, but seriously jarring. We’re looking for a softer, light-filled, relaxing look in our house.  Circusy is definitely not what I want to come home to.

I had wanted to repaint all the yellow – but that’s a large area, running from the front door through the entry hall, the living room, computer nook, and dining room. So I tried to talk myself into just painting the archway between the two rooms. But as time wore on and I got more fed up with the yellow, it soon turned to, “I know we have higher priority things than a new paint colour, but I swear to god if I get these things done this weekend THEN I GET TO SPEND THE WEEK PAINTING THE DINING ROOM. DEAL?!”

My mellow spouse knows better than (or doesn’t care enough) to contradict Imperial ALL-CAPS DEALS, so that’s what happened. I tackled doing our taxes on Saturday night with great fervour, organized our papers and receipts and then I woke up early on Sunday morning, feeling like a kid on Christmas and I jumped up, brewed some coffee, cleared out the dining room and started edging.

There’s the ‘after’. It looks white, but it’s technically a very pale grey. The colour is “Full Moon”. Ooooooooh.

I’m very happy with it. I feel like the wood in the room pops better now. Before it was just one big mess of warm tones against the yellow, but now it’s a nice contrast.

There’s so much more light in the room now.

Which is much better for photographing my food.

(Okay and also my children.)

And my stuff.

Alas, with incremental home improvement, every triumph is tempered with the sad list of things you wish were also done. We wanted to re-do the mouldings around the window while we had everything off the walls. We also wanted to put up different crown and paint it a glossier white so it would pop a little more against the grey, install taller baseboard, put a rosette on the ceiling over the chandelier and put some decorative mouldings and corbels in the archways. Oh yes, and those windows that are leaning against the walls, we’d like to hang them up – now that the room is so crisp and bright, it needs a little patina on the walls (which I suppose the kids’ dirty fingers will add soon enough).

For sure all those other things are coming eventually. Right now, though, I’m working on enjoying the present triumph.