Foyer dilemma

Dear Hannah,

I have a foyer dilemma - what color do I paint it? Things to consider: How do I want people to feel when they walk in the door? Calm? Invited? Energized? Wowed? Or should it be a seamless transition to the rest of the house. I know I owe you pictures of the actual house - we still are in such flux, I'm embarrassed to post pics. For now, an internet inspiration board will have to do.

The room I'm struggling with is tiny. Right when you walk through the front door, you step into a space that is maybe five by five feet. It has natural light from a small window and two side lights. There is a white built-in bench that lifts for storage. It is a sweet space except for this:

Hideous. Nothing I would choose, but we're stuck with it for now. I thought I finally got away from hunter green tile when we left the old house (it was all over the kitchen and bathrooms), but it is following me, haunting me! How do I match it or should I just ignore it? Our refinished oak hardwood floors look so pretty - why dark green??? WHY???

Currently, it is painted a light mushroom gray over wood panelling (so no wallpaper). It's okay, but with the polka-dot patches, it must be repainted. Remember, we went with a neutral in the entire front of the house. Whetstone gray (by Martha Stewart) is in the hall leading off the entry, the kitchen, the dining room and the living room as well as the hall to the bedrooms. It is a lot of gray. I like it - it makes the space look continuous and sophisticated, but I'm craving color. It is such a departure from the old house and my rhythmic blue.

Here are some ideas:

House Beautiful reccomends these colors - I like these

Palladian Blue, Drab, Oyster Blue

Mother likes Folly Green

Inspiration Board:

This is my favorite (surprise, surprise)

I like these too

What do you think?

Love,

Ellen

Close!

Dear Ellen, remember how you asked me to choose paint colors and then I couldn't upload the image? Scroll down to your post of paint samples on the wall. Dang, am I good or what? :)

Nana, this one's for you!

Movie Decor Website

Dear Ellen,

Do you remember the URL to that website that was all about the set design of movies? I'm wanting pictures from ELF! I'm obsessed with all that ashy gray wood paneling!

Graphic-Happy

I've been having a little fun with some black and white and patterns incorporated into my neutral-as-Switzerland color palette! Remember the pillows? They're from fabricadabra and I love them! The paintings in the kitchen are me playing with my new (old) paints and canvases that my Grandad and Nana just brought me. I like to think of some paintings as fitting in the the 'canvas' of the room.

Here are Grandad and Nana! Sammy loves them. They DROVE from Turlock, California, to Spokane, Washington, which is, I think, 18 hours in the car. One thing they did besides visit our various family members in the Pacific Northwest was bring me a huge stack of canvases and paints. They wanted to see what I did with them, so here's a few. I'm having fun with the freedom to just 'play' right now. I used old latex paint to stencil the bathroom, but I did use one of the brushes they brought. I got a polka dot stencil from the stencil library and voila! It took a while because it was a small stencil. But I feel good about turning a pretty run-of-the-mill bathroom wall into something interesting. And it even ties in the dweeby light fixture until I replace it! The little ugly doll is from Uncle Andy's Boo Radley's in Spokane. I thought he looked funny in such a traditional setting. :) The silhouette is Ben when he was a little boy and Paul and Amy let me swipe it from Ben's old closet!

Remember I was looking for the perfect lamp for the bathroom? Did I ever show you this? It is from Value Village. A thrift store!! Remember my Craigslist couch? Re-covered, of course. The pillow is from bestillshop on etsy. And, since this is turning into the home-shopping channel, the clock is from L.L. Bean. It's supposed to slowly glow as it wakes you up gently, but I've never used it!