All the colors in the universe

Dear Hannah,

There is little I enjoy more than walking into a store empty handed and walking out with a stack of paint cards having spent nothing. I find it to be a small miracle that after accruing hundreds, I managed to narrow it down to eighteen. I have 18 color samples. Real ones that I purchased and borrowed. Some are in cute mini-paint cans from Home Depot. Others are well loved remnants of Katie's paint colors from her gorgeous house (post to come...). The winnowing started when you said to gather objects that inspire me from my current home and take them to the new house. Here's what I brought:

The modern nostalgia is quite obvious, but I saw three main themes develop.

Red




Orange, white and shiny








Cool, calm and collected blue, gray and shiny







Aren't you proud of my shiny?

At first, I thought I must have decorator ADD. The colors seemed to make no sense together. That is until Katie noticed they are complimentary colors! Just like this:



I'm still not sure on how to mix all my things together. And I'm not sure what to do with the red. But, this process has helped. 18 is much more manageable than infinity.

I took to heart your observation about blue. It is a love I cannot deny. But, I like your idea of treating some blues and greens like neutrals.

The result is that we have now painted 3 rooms. The kitchen is a wonderful, warm gray called Whetstone Gray. The master bedroom is a silvery blue called Winter's Day. The master bath is a cold stone gray that I'm not so sure about. Photos are coming after we move. We move in about 36 hours. We're not packed. Now that feels like an infinite task...

Wish us luck.

Missing you makes my heart hurt. Having this blog makes it a little better.

I love you.
xoxo,
Ellen