Living Room Makeover In Progress: Going Green

My husband, Joe, and I have lived in our current house for 12 years.  We've done our fair share of painting, home improvement, and decorating, especially the year after we moved in to the house.  I have some great memories of my friends volunteering to help paint our living room and dining room.  We listened to a great box set of 1970's Greatest Hits as the four of us painted our golden living room and cardinal red dining room.

Twelve years is just about long enough for one paint color, at least in my mind.  Although I loved the colors we chose, it's just time for a change.  Last summer I painted over the red dining room in a taupe to transform it into my now beloved craft room.  The summer before that, I painted Joe's home office the deep blue that Ralph Lauren uses on his Polo cologne boxes.  At Home Depot, Ralph Lauren has an entire display of paint chips, and we were able to find one that matched the signature color.

Over the past weekend, Joe and I painted our golden living room Behr's "Retro Avocado".  It's a very rich color, and I'm pleased with the results.  There were a few tense moments when we first put the color on the wall when we weren't sure it was going to look good.  In fact, the color reminded me of the substance Linda Blair upchucked in The Exorcist.  But once the whole room was finished, it looked great.

Is it unlucky for dogs to stand under a ladder?

I've learned to never judge a new paint color against the old wall color:

Go bold or go home!

I was all set to purchase new drapes but our crewel embroidered drapes looked fine next to the new color.  Instead of dry cleaning, this year I thought I'd save money by throwing them in the washer.  They seemed to handle the washing fine, but after the tumble dry I noticed they had shrunk a lot in length.  Oops.  I forgot the embroidery was done in wool.  I'm going to try to find some long fringe or trim that I can sew to the bottom edge so they touch the floor again:

I like to keep my paint supplies organized, as you can see here:

I'm not stopping with just paint in our living room.  I have big plans to add beadboard and a chair rail all around, and perhaps built-in shelves at one end of the room.  A recent estimate for this work by a highly skilled carpenter was higher that our budget would allow, but eventually it will happen.

Now I have a question for you:  Should Behr re-name their color "Linda Blair Green"?

Mitzi