Did I say that I was going to stick to a plan? Any plan?
I don’t know what came over me! In a total fit of ‘I need to get some colour in this apartment’ I popped over to our local DIY store and dragged 10l of paint back home on the train.
Not exactly fun and by the time I got home I’d thoroughly lost the motivation to even start painting but being a good little DIY blogger I prevailed.
And here’s our newly painted bedroom!
I usually overthink every colour decision and admittedly spend way too much time contemplating the difference in colour shades that probably only I would ever notice.
So for me, this was a super radical decision – not least because of the colour I opted for!
It really is true, once you’ve crossed over to the dark side there’s just no going back!
We love the richness and instantly more finished feeling of the room!
Yes, the floors still need sanding and yes, there are about a million other jobs to do but what a difference a bit of paint can make!
As this was our first painting project in our new home, I have to admit that I’d been a bit anxious about how we’d cope with our high ceilings and large walls.
I could almost feel my arms aching before I’d even lifted my paintbrush for the first time!
To put it into context and give you a better idea of just how large our walls are, we used the same amount of paint in this room as we used to paint our whole hallway in our last home! Yep, a full 10 litres of paint just on our bedroom walls!
Then there’s the time frame.
We’ve had a fair amount of painting practice over the last years so we’re usually able to knock out a room painting project in about half a day (depending on how much prep needs doing and how long the drying time is) but to paint this room took sooo much longer!
It took a full day of both Jan and I working to clear the room, get everything taped off and give everywhere the first coat of paint. Then I spent about half of a second day giving everywhere a second coat of paint (the second coat is always much quicker!).
Almost all of our rooms have curved moulding where the walls meet the ceiling. Whilst it’s a lovely period feature to have, it does mean that there’s no natural break for us to paint up to.
Because we know that we’ll be faced with a similar situation every time we paint a room in our apartment we decided to treat ourselves to a new gadget to make taping off the walls just a bit easier and now have a fab new laser level!
Of course, we could have used a spirit level to mark an edge around the room but our new tool made it so much easier! You just attach the level to the wall and it projects a line right around the room. Then it’s just a matter of attaching the tape. I don’t even want to think about how long it would have taken to mark out everything with a spirit level!
The colour we chose is a colour matched version of Farrow & Ball’s Inchyra Blue.
I always used to think that it was worth spending a bit more on high-quality paints but I have to admit that this experience may have changed my mind. The final verdict is still out but the colour matched paint was so much cheaper that I couldn’t resist giving it a try. (I’ll be sharing more on colour matched paints soon!) If we’d purchased F&B paint it would have cost us a whopping 276€ to paint the room and this way it was under 40€!
We’ve not yet painted the radiator recesses and I’m seriously considering painting the skirting and door the same colour as the walls.
As we still have some building work planned in here (you can read about how we’d like to change the layout of our apartment here) we already know that this is only going to be a temporary update (which is part of the reason we opted for colour matched paint in the first place) but I love the colour so much that I think we’ll keep it!
Do you overthink every colour decision? Have you used dark paint in your home or do you prefer light colours? Have you ever tried colour matching paint? Did it work for you?
Aditi Chopra says
Hi I noticed the blue color does not go all the way to the top of the ceiling. Could you please share how many cm from the wall did you leave for the white band on the top? Thank you !
Christine says
The room is about 3.6m high and we left roughly 35 cm of white above the blue.
Hope that helps, Aditi!
Cx
Melissa Browne says
Hey
So glad I have found this blog!!
I’m having exactly the same dilemma … I love inchrya blue but this is not our forever home and I can’t justify it :(
Would you mind if I asked what colour you went for as a colour match xxx
Thanks so much
Christine says
It’s such a great colour, isn’t it? We had ours colour matched at a local DIY store. They scan the colour (or have it on file) and then mix the shade you want. Our DIY store had the Inchyra Blue colour code in their system so it’s an exact match. We generally found that the Dulux decorator stores match and mix the colours really well!
Hope that helps!
Cx
Steve says
Looks fantastic, I love this colour. Don’t want to bring you down but I think you should have followed F + B’s advice and painted it dark grey first to give it more depth.
Christine says
Thanks, Steve. I’ve used the primer in the past and I personally don’t think it makes a difference. I like to think of the first coat of paint as the primer and then the second two as the ‘normal’ paint.
Cx
Natalie says
Hi. I’m after this colour for my living room but never thought of colour matching and with the money you saved this is a great idea! What details did you give to your DIY store to get the match as this is identical to the f&b colour.
Great job by the way! ?
Christine says
Most DIY stores will match any colour from pretty much anything you take in! Just take in a colour card, they’ll scan it and give you the colour you want.
We’re actually preparing a post on if colour matching really works (we’re just super slow as usual) so watch this space ;).
Happy painting!
Cx
Charlotte says
I love the colour you’ve chosen, it looks cosy, dramatic, but also really classic. I agree that painting the woodwork will look amazing!
I’m inspired by your spontaneity in choosing the colour. The best design decisions are often based on instinct, but I’m already tending to overthink choices in our new home! Thanks for the post.
Christine says
Thanks! We totally overthink things, too, Charlotte! Worst of all, I decide on a colour and then change my mind about 10 times before actually sticking with one!
It is only paint and not exactly a plan for world peace, so what’s the worst that can happen?
Cx
Lucy says
You already know I love it just from the Insta post – but it looks even better here! I really like your idea for working around the moulding, did / do you have any niggles with your laser level? I have a Bosch one (admittedly it’s half the price of yours) and whilst the lines it projects are definitely straight you can tell it’s not always truly level and we end up spending a few minutes giving it a little tap and tweak to adjust it. Not the worst problem I grant you but seems silly given it’s function!
Christine says
Thank you, Lucy! We’ve not had any problems with our laser level so far. I did a lot of research before deciding on the one we have and we’re really happy with it. Having said that, this is the first time we’ve properly used it so I guess time will tell if it stays as good. I can’t believe we ever DIYed without one! ;)
Cx
Jeanette Livings says
I love the colour!! We’ve just picked stiffkey blue for our lounge and was going to do one walk in it but maybe need to be braver! Re paint matching – we did match moles breath and elephant breath in the bedroom and really couldn’t tell the difference so have done the same with the blue. Have spent a fortune on Clunch in our old house and not sure the quality is worth additional cost ??
Christine says
Thank you, Jeanette! We’d actually planned using Stiffkey Blue in this room but, as usual, I got a bit distracted and changed my mind. ;)
I totally recommend painting a whole room dark. We did it in our dining room in our last house and it looked great.
I’m running a bit of a colour matching experiment at the moment (hope to share the results soon) so it’s interesting to hear that matching colours worked for you. We’ve spent a fortune on expensive paints in the past and I also wonder if it’s worth it.
Cx
Jessica says
Beautiful colour, very dramatic and cozy. I like it! And is that a Jalo moth smoke alarm I see up there on the ceiling? I’ve been totally wanting those for my home!
Christine says
Wow, you’re observant, Jessica! Yes, it’s a Jalo smoke detector. They’re amazing, aren’t they? We love them and have them all around our apartment! We even shared a post about them https://www.littlehouseonthecorner.com/pretty-smoke-alarms/.
Cx
Antoinette says
I really think the skirting should be painted and probably the door frames and doors. It seems so much more modern
Christine says
That’s actually what we’re planning on doing, Antoinette! We’re in the process of sanding the floors at the moment so can’t paint the skirtings etc until we’ve finished the floor.
Cx
Marion says
Fantastic job! I love the colour and it is so impressive in such a grand scale. Do you find the size of the rooms makes you think differently about what to do, just because of the scale?
Keep up the great work. I really enjoy the blog.
Marion
Christine says
Thank you so much, Marion! We’re really pleased with the colour, too!
Yes, the proportions of our apartment are definitely making us overthink some of our original design plans. At the moment, most things we own look a bit out of proportion with the scale of the rooms so it’s proving to be a bit challenging.
It’s one of the reasons we opted for the dark paint in this room. Dark walls somehow have a way of making a room feel more finished and fuller (if that makes sense!)
Cx