No More Red Walls!

We are slowly, but surely, making some changes to our new house before we move in.  My first priority was painting the dark red walls in our great room.

 

 This is a photo from before we took possession, when the old owners still lived there.  It was decorated beautifully, but the red walls just don't work with my style in the least!  Painting them was a pretty big issue though, since these are 20" ceilings! 

 

After getting back quotes from a painter, we quickly decided that we wouldn't be able to take that route, which meant it was up to my husband, who is afraid of heights!  And since he is very particular about painting, he doesn't allow me to do it at all.  Usually that suits me fine, but I felt bad that he'd have to do something he wasn't comfortable with.

 

But, he faced his fears, and he did it!  I had to sit at the base of the ladder while he worked, just in case, but that was perfectly fine with me!  He even let the kids climb the ladder just for fun!

 

 Don't think my heart wasn't racing while they were up there!!

 

And now we have non-red walls!  I opted for a neutral cream for now.  I want to see how the room comes together before committing to anything else. 

 

As you see here, I got a vintage pull-down map to hang.  I plan to put it over the television, and it can be raised and lowered as needed.  I'm not crazy about having a TV over the fireplace (that's prime display space!!!), but this thing is mounted in there pretty tight, and would take quite a bit of work to remove it, so for now, I'm going to try out the map.

 

The shelves are currently just a drop-zone for things as I unpack them, so I'm not sure what will be going in those.  And I have NO IDEA what to put in those huge archways up there!  As you can see from the previous photos with the kids, they are like 4-5' tall!  At first I had thought dollhouses (because, like, duh!), but I don't think I have any that wouldn't be completely dwarfed!  We'll see, I guess.

 

 

I also need to get a rug.  We haven't had hardwood floors before, so I don't have much experience buying rugs, but I'm leaning right now towards this one.  I think it would work well with the map colors and the floor.

 

So anyway, that's where things stand right now.  Our old house hasn't sold yet.  We bought a St. Josef's statue, and buried it a few days ago, so we'll see if he does the trick for us!

 

I'll keep you all posted as things progress further!