Guest Room Re-do: An Update

I've been making some progress on the guest room redo, and the painting is in progress. I'm only about half done, but I thought I share the process because the difference between the old and new color is so different.  I'm in the process of changing it from sweet and light-filled to moody and sexy.

About 1/2 way through painting.

 

 

 

 But, I have to be honest, I'm at the (unfortunately common) stage of the project where I'm starting to second guess every choice.  This doesn't always happen, but it does a lot, especially when everything in the room is a wreck and everything is half (or less) finished with some major choices still up in the air.  In times like this, I just have to go back to my inspiration, my plans, and my design intent and trust that I wasn't smoking crack when I came up with those. 

I spent a lot of time picking and testing the color before painting, and I definitely wanted a change and a cocoon feel for the room.  I think, though, what freaked me out was when I looked at the new color versus the old and realized that I am going against the trend that every other blogger seems to be following....I'm painting over pale grey with a brown!  Too be fair, it's actually a greeny bronze in person, but it definitely reads as a brown variant. My freaking out leads to the other point of this post:

Are reading too many blogs bad for your morale in the way that too many fashion and fitness magazines can leave you feeling bad about your body?  I mean, even though I devoured shelter magazines for years, I never really compared my homes to the ones featured, or let the trends they showed influence my own decorating decisions.  Somehow, like glamorous black and white photos of old Hollywood stars, I knew they were just a fantasy and without a million dollar budget I could never duplicate them, so I never really saw them as a feasible possibility for me.  Thus, I was able to enjoy them without comparing my home to theirs.  

With blogs, though, it feels different.  I find myself thinking, "If just an average person can do it, why can't I?"  And now, seeing so many trends repeated on many blogs, I have started thinking about whether or not my choices are "dated" which seems to have become the worst thing you can say about a room.  I'll be honest...in the middle of painting, I thought,
  
   " I should stop, reverse and repaint it gray, pull out some linen feed bags and tart this room     up all Belgian and full of patina.  If I do, maybe I could get some blog exposure, because right now, no other blogger would feature this room."

But that felt so fake.  Not that there is anything wrong with following trends if that's what you want that look, but it just feels so far from what I believe in , which is personal style and personal decorating.  And the point of the room should be to make my guests and me happy, not a blog audience.   Even after writing this, I'm toying with whoring the room out in the current vogue.   Who knew that painting a room could lead to an existential discussion about being true or being popular?  Good grief, I feel like I'm in 9th grade again.  I guess I'll go listen to Culture Club and scrunch some socks until the mood passes.

 

At least the magnetic primer worked.