Painting | Judy Moon and Associates

The Color Shift

In the spring my husband and I took on the slightly insane project of painting our apartment. It’s been feeling drab in here for a while. He has always been excited to add some color to our walls. I on the other hand was a bit resistant. It’s my nature, what can I say? Part of my reluctance was to the bright and vivid colors hubby was suggesting. We have high ceilings and a long front room so that’s A LOT of wall space to live with. My first thoughts were “what about a softer shade of this or that”? Don’t get me wrong, I love brilliant and vibrant colors (I have a vast fabric collection to prove it!), but the thought of them on my walls, I couldn’t wrap my head around it.

After talking it over quite a bit and lots of patient yet continuous coaxing by my husband (he’s kind of a saint on that front) I realized that we had been in this space for a long time and had talked about painting forever. Why not step out of my comfort zone? Many of my alarm bells were ringing, but I did it anyway and I am SO glad!

We decided to paint two main walls and leave the rest a creamy white color. We narrowed down the two colors we wanted fairly quickly, but then it took several weeks to decide on the shade of each color. During that time we painted the white walls and the change in the feel of the apartment was immediate! We hadn’t fully realized how dingy the place had become. Now we were really excited to get to the colors! (and man do I have some serious respect for people who paint for a living! No joke!) Suggestions from friends to buy a bunch of small cans of paint samples and roll big patches on the walls to live with for a few days was worth every penny and probably saved us from a few arguments.

Finally we came to our colors…a blue and an orange. “Blue lagoon” and “ Hawaiian passion”… do I sense a theme here? The orange wall was painted first and needed a few coats. WOW! did it pop and I loved it. Next came the blue, really more like turquoise. I took a deep breath, dipped my roller in the tray full of color and rolled a long, luxurious streak of “Blue Lagoon” on my wall.

“I LOVE THIS COLOR!!!!!” I screamed to my husband. He chuckled and agreed. The paint totally transformed our living space! And inspired us to move things around a bit, get rid of the old stuff that had been lying around, sucking up space. I bought a new rug to compliment the colors and am in the process of making new pillow covers for the couch cushions.

I’ve always felt the effects of color on my mood or in the garden, but this was such a positive shift in how I felt about my space, it was like I had forgotten how color affects us. There are lots of cool articles out there about “color psychology” and color theory and how they really can shift our perspectives. I have felt it first hand! And everyone who has come into our space feels it too. “The energy feels better in here” has been said more than once.

I’m so glad I took the plunge and invited color into our space!

*Thanks to Pinterest and Design Seeds (see above photo) for TONS of great ideas!

Posted by Judy Moon

Happy Birthday Wellness Seeds! You are officially one year old! You might be saying to yourself… soooo????

Well, It’s a big deal for me. It took a lot of coaxing from someone very special to me and that California Girl knows who she is!

I am creative in a lot of different ways – in my garden, with cooking, I knit, I even play with colored pencils and a Mandala coloring book, I love crafts, I like to paint, – you get the picture, if there’s glitter or a glue stick involved – count me in!

But writing – that took me out of my comfort zone. It was personal, it was exposing, just to name a few of the million excuses I gave to not start a blog. Probably my biggest excuse/fear was- “Who wants to hear what I have to say? Who cares?”

Well to my surprise – people do care- who knew?!

The other big surprise – drum roll please…

I enjoy writing! Yes, I said it out loud for the whole universe to see.

So my anniversary Wellness Seed for you today is –

Step out of the box, do something new and different, something that makes you a little uncomfortable, It doesn’t have to be big. Change is the essence of our life.

You might be surprised. It may even turn out to be something that you really enjoy and puts a smile on your face and that is good medicine in my book.

Cheers!