Saturday, December 01, 2007

Help Wanted (Pay Sucks)

I need your help. Again.

It's curious to see which posts generate the most comments on my (or any, for that matter) blog. I don't necessarily write just to receive comments, but comments are great for knowing if what I'm writing means jack-sh*t anything to anyone. In looking upon my blogger dashboard, I see that the most comments I've ever received on a post is 16 - on the post where I asked for living room lay-out advice. Wild, huh?

There are many possible explanations for this, my favorite assumption being that commenting on whether or not I should rearrange my living room furniture, into something as daring as an angle, is safe. No one is going to get flamed for her opinion. No one will have to justify her answer. It's a chance to say, "Hey! I'm here too!" without needing to elaborate. And heck, that was possibly the only post where I explicitly asked for your opinion. (I asked for help with my shoe addiction, but apparently no one saw the seriousness of that issue. Only Rob. And our bank account.) Maybe I should ask more often.

So, since you all did such a great job at telling me exactly what I wanted to hear helping me decide about the living room, I have another decorating predicament. Are you ready? Got your best Martha Stewart goin' on? Have your inner interior decorator at the ready? Your color palette eyes open wide? Your virtual bib overalls on? Your - ok, you get the point.

I need help choosing a paint color for my bathroom. (I know! The challenge that is my life.)

You may recall that my bathroom is, well, pretty bare.



Now - here's part of the dilemma. I like bare. That's why I chose an all-neutral house to begin with. Soft, light cut-loop berber carpet. Creamy walls. Honey-maple cabinets. Cocoa-colored ceramic tile. It's very warm. It's very cozy. It's very spare.

It's also very blah.

Hence the purple wall insanity. When I decided to go color, I decided to go COLOR.

Purple walls. Attached to creamy green walls. Attached to terra-cotta sienna-ish walls. Flanking a dusty purple-ish-tan-ish wall. And then I stopped. I got tired of painting. (So tired that every wall in my living room is painted except one. I simply puttered out and ran out of color ideas. And if I'd stop pointing it out, I doubt anyone would notice. Or care.)

So the bathroom, among others, remains bare. The original color. And I don't know what color to paint it. I don't want it to be too dark.

As there are no windows in there.

I don't want it to be too bright or intense.

As no one wants to have to squint or scream, "My eyes! My eyes!" when they're trying to do their bidness. Ahem.

And I don't want it to be cheesy or pukey or haughty or gaudy. Or boring. Or manic.

It should be a simple task, really. If I weren't so d*mn difficult to please.

But the place desperately needs a serious color overhaul. Seriously. Seriously soon. And I figure with winter coming, and nothing better to do (says the grrrl who hasn't even thought about Christmas yet), what better time to work on a long-overdue home-improvement project that's been on the hope-to-do list for, oh, 11-1/2 years.

Here are the colors in the shower curtain, which I'm too cheap to replace by the way.

A somewhat-retro, canvas-ish collection of dusty blue, olive green, red, and tanish/grayish stripes. I like it for its simplicity. (There's that theme again.)

And remember, I need it to be soothing in there. (Ahem.) Zen-like. Pleasing. Cozy.

Any suggestions?

And while we're discussing my bathroom habits aura-of-choice, let me tell you that this room sometimes serves other purposes.

As a playground, for example.


And even a tv room at times.

So feel free to take that into consideration. :-)

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Laura, I am sorry to say... I have no help for you. Bad decorating taste runs in my family. My mom's bathroom has the same wallpaper as the Wendy's Burger joint down the street.
Also, I think maybe, it is certainly true for me, people do not know what to write when they read some things you have written. Like your post about the lady selling her son's toy at a garage sale.
I believe with all my heart that your stories have, in some way, made me a better mother.

K. said...

Okay, first?

"And I don't want it to be cheesy or pukey or haughty or gaudy. Or boring. Or manic."

I need a raise if I'm going to be working under these conditions.

And second?

I have GOT to know the story behind that last picture or I simply cannot go on. There has got to be a story, even if it's "he simply couldn't miss the football game because he had a year's worth of allowance riding on it." Spill.

Stephanie said...

Are you sure you aren't willing to change the shower curtain? That might help me help you, LOL!
Does it have to be masculine? Can it be a dusty rose type color, a lavender or soft blue...

I personally like bold colors, my living room is red :)

Our 2nd bath is small like yours and we painted it belgian waffle, I could take a picture if you want to see the color.

piscesgrrl said...

bonnyjane - first off, that's one of the nicest comments I've ever received. *thank you* And second, LOL about the wallpaper!!! That is a HOOT.

k. - LOL, it's not quite that interesting. One day he decided he couldn't be away from his pokemon movie long enough for a bath and asked if he could set it up if he promised not to electrocute himself. :) So he did. And now it's become part of the bathing ritual, at least when the army men aren't around.

stephanie - belgian waffle? Uh... yes'm, I'll need a picture. (I thought I was getting creative with descriptors like "creamy greenish-tanish"!) And I suppose I could be talked into changing the shower curtain, if I HAVE to. :) And it doesn't have to be masculine per se, but I'd like to hold off on being too frou-frou or drippy.

(I know, k, I'm insufferable! That's why my bloody bathroom is still off-white!)

EC said...

I think that bathroom would look great in a shade of mossy green. It's not too dark, not too light. My sis has a bathroom in her basement with no windows and used that color with wonderful results. Looking at my handy-dandy 3 year old Benjamin Moore Color Fan, I see three that look like good candidates to me:

Fernwood Green #2145-40
Pale Avocado #2146-40
Dill Pickle #2147-40

If you feel those aren't bright enough, check out Stem Green #2029-40.

I'm no decorator or anything, just a chick who loves to paint with a husband who has a seizure everytime he sees her get out the aforementioned Color Fan. Best $12 I ever spent.

Anonymous said...

Big L...Queen of Color. My bathrooms are either sage green (close to the background of your blog page and my zen favorite), pesto with an acrylic ragging glaze over it (not so restful, but it is the powder room anyway and we encourage efficient trips), aquamarine (the kids bathroom complete with fish motif) and celestial blue (the guest bathroom...very soothing). I like the shower curtain and if you do too...pull a color from that. The wall treatments of ragging and dry brush are easy and add depth.
Was I too opinionated?

Sarah said...

dh addresses me the frustrated interior decorator...so I'm afraid I'm hopeless in this department. However, as to receiving comments on your posts, I wonder about that too. Since I'm still green to blogging, my initial goal and objective for my blogs is for personal journalling, pondering my thoughts out loud?? and improving my poor writing mechanics. For now, I am enjoying the experience even with little feedback and visit from others.

piscesgrrl said...

whimsigal - holy wow, look at YOU, pulling actual color #s out of your sleeve! Cool - THANKS! p.s. wanna come over and paint?

peacegoddess - too opinionated? you? NEVER. (btw, people, I know pg in REAL LIFE!) Celestial blue sounds niiiiice. Would that make my boyz take longer than ever to do their bizness? LOL

r.u.l.i.f. - I enjoy the experience of blogging either way as well, gives an outlet to the constant ticker tape of thoughts ruminating around in my spacious head! Thx for visiting!

Stephanie said...

I need your email address to send you a picture, I don't know paint numbers, it was an oops paint.

piscesgrrl said...

stephanie - I'm at piscesgrrl(at)aeroinc(dot)net. Oooh, I feel so secretive and subversive when I type it like that!

Silvia said...

Ok, you might not like it, but check out what we did with Emily's bathroom: http://casaincostruzione.blogspot.com/2007/04/dressed-up-bathroom.html . Ours is very neutral, but I have some black iron-work for towel bars, etc. And the half-bath is here: http://casaincostruzione.blogspot.com/2007/07/basement-half-bath.html . The second picture shows the color the best.

Nicole Welch said...

Hi! I love your blog and since decorating is my passion I had to respond to this post!

I recommend checking out
http://www.dominomag.com/galleries/rooms/kitchenbath/bathroom/soothingbathrooms

for some inspiration. Also Flickr is a great source. And:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/
it's not just for apartments anymore.

Good luck in your decisions.

Nicole Welch said...

Oh, sorry. The links didn't come up.
Soothing Bathrooms - Domino Magazine
Apartment Therapy

There. Hope that works.