I take my inspiration from my Handsome's fur.

So Handsome and I were sitting at home tonight considering some options for paint colors in the sun/living rooms and found this picture of beautiful Gwyneth Paltrow posing next to a fireplace that could be a distant cousin to the one not more than 6 inches from where we were sitting.  This one is a dandy, I'm curious to see how tall you think it is.  Gwyneth is 5'8? I'm not sure...but judging by the picture and basing her height on that guess, the fireplace must be 6'2 or 6'3. My, my it's pretty.  Ours is approximately 6 ft. tall and 7 ft. wide. 

Anyway, back to the paint color.  After having the sconces installed a couple weeks ago, I've finally become used to them in the space. Now on to paint.  I had my mind set on a shade of gray.  I got samples from Benjamin Moore in Shadow Gray, Sweet Innocence, and Thundercloud Gray....at this point I feel like I'm going back to the drawing board with my friendly bucket of Decorator's White that we used for the master bath.  

This is where the fireplace comes in.  Being that it is all stone, the #1 problem is that I don't want to pick a color that makes it look yellow.  The current color does just that.  #2 problem/obstacle is that we have a 6ft grand piano at the opposite end of the room, #3 is that we also have floor to ceiling black curtains on the two big windows.  So there's the whole issue of light int he room.  Trust me there is plenty since the sunroom is just off the south end, but oh geeeez.  What do WE think?

Here are the Benjamin Moore options...

1. Shadow Gray

2. Sweet Innocence

3.Thundercloud Gray

While watching 9 By Design last evening, I noticed that a lot of the walls in their homes are white.  I like that.  Why was that so hard to decide.  I painted my bathroom white...I love that, why wouldn't I love a white living/sun room?  

The living room as it is is a shade of golden yellow.  5 of the rooms in the house are painted variations on this color.  While it is quite nice, I'm proud that they picked this and something like hunter green (that would have been hard to live with for 2 years in these rooms).  

But for now, it's time for a change. 

I like this perspective of the room.  It gives a range of the yellow color in question when thinking about the room's new future of gray or white.  Also, I'm not sure if you're picking up on it but I have a thing for black and white and the colors that range in between.  Handsome has claimed his napping space for the past couple of days on the arm rests in between the two (NEW) white chairs.  Good thing his belly is white and not black...I can deal with some black fur on things(...)

This room is a strange beast.  When the home was purchased 4 years ago, nobody had lived here for over 10 years.  The floor in this room had to be completely restructured (as did the ceiling in here and the living room).  In here we have a variation on the yellow.  This shad is a bit lighter, but still yellow.  The ceiling is green.  Green, really? Green? I'm confused where this color came into the picture.  Orange floor, yellow walls, another ornate plaster fixture on the wall, and a green ceiling. Huh.  The plan for the ceiling is a super duper white high gloss, just like in the living room. This room clearly has no obstacles with sun light, but alas, still has a paster fixture/statue/fountain built into the east wall.  I think one of the shades of gray would be particularly nice in here.