One day, I tried talking to the walls, and they spoke back. They were telling me a story that only color could communicate.
Walls can make or break any space. Before we moved into our home, all of our interior walls were gray. I hated it. I feel like the walls of a home speak to the energy it carries. Us being a young family, we wanted our them to represent youthful, buoyant energy. Energy that is ever-flowing. I love texture and spaces that have dynamic appeal. And gray, wasn’t serving the purpose that we want to abide.
The walls I’ve envision in our home, embody vibrant colors. Colors that add high frequency to a space. I wanted to add the aura to the room before we would decide what to do about adding furniture and decor.
So far, my favorite DIY project in our home is our walls. We’ve begun painting our kid’s bedroom, which I love sooo much, but we’ll talk about that another day.
Our first “completely” painted room was our living room. My husband and I painted a green and beige faux lime wash technique on 3 of the walls. I was a little nervous, but I just had to trust the process. I wanted the fourth wall to remain simple to balance out the vibrancy of the green on the other walls, so we painted that one a solid beige. Being that this wall also holds the fireplace, it just made sense to dial back so that the fireplace can be the “shining star” of this wall.
I chose green to be the forefront of the living room because we are an earthy family. I want the theme of our home to represent nature and garden-like living with a kick of boutique. I was conflicted between using a darker green or a lighter green. Darker tones give a comfy, intimate vibe while lighter tones can make a space feel much bigger and bounces natural sunlight around the room. In the end, we settled on a lighter tone because it worked better with the beige.
We are very intentional about the energy we want to curate in our home, with green being the color that represents love and abundance, we feel it necessary to include it in as many spaces as we can. Tastefully, that is.
I feel like walls of a home should carry life. My husband and I have so many pictures of friends and family, we plan to have them printed so that we can to add breath to our home. I love pictures hanging in homes. They’re easy conversation starters when hosting guests. Hanging them is also beneficial when you have young kids.
Our living room inspires me so much, I can hardly settle on a floor plan because I have so many ideas. If you follow my Pinterest, you may notice that I’ve actually created a few mood boards for living room inspiration. I use actual pictures of elements in our living room wall to draw as close a vision to reality as possible.
When it comes down to choosing a color, I encourage you not to be afraid to be bold in the decision to go with an unconventional color. There’s always people who may not see your vision initially. Once you’ve look past the plans other have for your space, you’re able to see ways to bring that unconventional color into that space, at whatever shade you deem satisfactory. A good stylist can work with what seems impossible. There are also ways to marry colors in ways that may not be as conventional as you may think.
Someone told me that I “didn’t want my home to look like a coloring book.” Honestly, I didn’t take offense. It just provided me with insite, that not everyone in the interior design field has the same unique eye as me. Honestly, if they did, then it wouldn’t be so unique. I have a bold vision and it’s not always easy to express to people without visual representation. I live in an age where modernism is taking lead in many aspects of life. And often, that mean stripping places of the originality and spunk. That’s not exactly my style. My taste represents tradition in ways that express a clean, funky, aged sense of style.
Overall, we are so proud of our final results! Pictures truly don’t do the wall justice.
The fun part about interior design, is that your eyes aren’t common. And it’s okay, everyone won’t see what you see. In a home, trends aren’t always comfortable to keep up with. In my home, I plan to break rules and shackles that keep me bound to lack of free thinking. I’m here to try and make mistakes, then try again until we find what works for us as a family.
Any who, I say all this to say, don’t be afraid to try.
For those of you that have read this far, thank you so much for your time. If you’re interested in staying up to date on my journey in design, I’ll have updates here, in my Iconic Design Boards. You can also find me on Pinterest and TikTok @trywithzi.
I’m looking forward to continuing the journey of coloring all of my walls to fit our family. Thanks for reading with Zi.
