Well, I didn’t get a single thing done in my walk-in closet this weekend. It’s a holiday weekend here in the U.S., and for a change, I put absolutely no pressure on myself to get things done, and I did so with zero guilt. I spent my weekend sitting at my desk in the studio (my favorite place in our house) updating the house tour page on my blog. So if you want see all of the befores and afters of every room in our house in one place, or get paint color info, you can check out that page.
And I hadn’t even planned on being here this morning. Since it’s a holiday, I had planned on spending this holiday sleeping in, followed by a nice breakfast and maybe watching a movie with Matt. But I was awakened just before 6:00am by loud thunder, bright lightening, and loads of rain pounding on the windows as a thunderstorm rolled through. So I got up and went back to my happy place.
I’ve officially become a morning person, which is so strange. All of my adult life, I’ve been a night owl. I could stay up until 2:00am or later and had a hard time making myself to go to bed. Then morning would come, and I’d struggle so much to get my day started. But over this last year, I’ve learned that my favorite time of day is actually early morning, before the sun comes up, when the house is dark, the neighborhood is quiet and still, Matt is still sleeping, and I get an hour or two at my desk, with Cooper curled up at my feet, while I sit under the soft glowing light of the pendant light above my desk. I actually look forward to it every single night when I go to bed. Who have I become? 😀
Anyway, this morning during those dark, quiet hours at my desk, I played around with some different colors for my closet island. I had planned on painting it the same color as the cabinets — Sherwin Williams Billowy Blue. I even bought the paint for it since I had run out of paint while painting the cabinets. But several people have suggested painting it an accent color.
At first, I kind of recoiled at the idea because I thought an accent color would compete with the wallpaper. But this morning, I started considering it more seriously simply because I think it might actually highlight the wallpaper rather than compete with it. So using my photo editor, I picked out some colors from the main large flowers in the wallpaper and tested them out on a very rough mockup of the island.
First, here’s what Billowy Breeze would look like. Ignore the gray outlines. I literally used a line drawing of the island for the mockup. The actual island won’t have any gray on it.
But here’s a sampling of the colors that I picked out from those large pink flowers. First up is a pink that looks like it has just a touch of purple in it…
Next is a pink that’s a little more prominent in the wallpaper.
And this is the most prominent light pink in the wallpaper.
But then I decided to try the darkest pinkish red color from those big flowers.
This one is also from the center of the big flowers, but it has a touch of orange to it.
This is the coralish/orange from the big flowers, but it’s probably my least favorite since it seems to fight with the pinks. And the pinks are the most prominent colors in the wallpaper.
And here’s a lighter version of that color, which is also from the big flowers, but isn’t as prominent as the pinks.
I don’t know, y’all. I may love an accent color after all! And since this is a walk-in closet, it doesn’t have to be too serious, right? I can have a little fun with it. And of course, it’s just paint. If I don’t like it, I can always go back to Billowy Breeze. Should I try out one of these accent colors? And keep in mind that the countertop will be a faux marble, so it will be mostly white. And then I’ll have the white flowery chandelier above the island. I think I’m leaning towards an accent color now!
Here’s a side-by-side view of the Billowy Breeze and the accent color that’s probably my favorite.
What do you think? Should I stick with Billowy Breeze? Or should I have some fun with it and do an accent color?
UPDATE: I should have anticipated that many people would suggest the dark blue of the wallpaper background. I’d love that! I did try it out, and it’s beautiful, but it’s not an option.
I’ll be the first to admit that that’s absolutely gorgeous. But here’s the deal. The foyer just outside the closet doorway will be teal, and those will clash. I selected this wallpaper because it has the dark blue in it (which will match my washer and dryer) as well as some shades of teal sprinkled throughout to bridge the dark blue and the teal. But I still want to keep the big blue items separated from the teal foyer.
So that pretty much rules out painting the island dark blue, which will bring the blue right up to the teal foyer. But it also rules out painting the island a dark teal, which would also look gorgeous, but which would bring the teal right up to the blue washer and dryer.
And since my washer and dryer are blue — only blue with no hint of green in them — in my mind, the blues and teals need to stay separated with some distance.
Perhaps there’s a dark blue out there that has just a touch of green, but not so much green that it actually looks teal, so that it will still look good with the washer and dryer, but just enough green in it that it won’t clash with the foyer grasscloth wallpaper. Maybe that color exists. But that might be like searching for a unicorn. I can try though!
More About My Walk-In Closet/Laundry Room
see all walk-in
closet diy projects
read all walk-in
closet blog posts
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
