New Color for a New Year!

Doubt...what a creeper... Friends, as I sit here I am convincing myself that my husband is right -- "Trust your talent and your instincts," he tells me. So, I am not going to second and third guess myself any longer. I have taken on a project to repaint a local non-profit music and art center (well, the hallways first!) This center has blessed our family with violin, viola, voice, and orchestra lessons and our family wanted to give back.

At first when the idea came to me and we talked about it, I thought I would just be repainting it the grey that it was. I didn't like the idea as it is really dreary, but I thought that there was an artsy reason behind the grey walls. Come to find out that they are loathed grey walls! So, I was off to establish a new color palette - one that was inspiring, one that made students want to be there and parents to want to wait there!

As with most of my projects, my mind develops an idea beyond what I originally intend--all for practical and necessary reasons of course! As these halls see hundreds of people I thought that it would be nice to just repaint the lower half of the wall if needed in the future. Hence, a two tone plan - well, how about 3-4 colors with a multi stripe? Actually, I think that the stripe would make me squirrely if it didn't stop along the way at a venue or have words to guide you down the hallway. So, I began to develop this idea further and found a great color palette that I think will suit the existing grey carpet in the hall and eventually the rooms that have a dark green with cream and clay flecks in it.  It is an Olympic paint collection you can view the "Celebrate" colors here: http://www.olympic.com/Paint/Explore_Color/connecting_spaces.aspx  There are some nice coral tones, muted blues, and clean yellow hues.

Now I am in the process of working with the data (photo below). Figuring square footage per color... As you can see in these photos, I broke out the chalk pastels to try to better visualize the spaces. I couldn't quite match the blue color which made it a little difficult to decide, but I used the computer generated rooms on Olympic's website to give me assurance of the color combinations.

Then I make a master list of each wall and the amount and color of paint required. That will really help me in the store and with the volunteers -- you didn't think I was painting this all by myself did you?

My Inspired Workspace - including sheet music to reference

Hopefully I will be able to get paint donated or discounted tomorrow, get the wall prep work started and the volunteers lined up! Photos to come when we are done. Here's to new color in the new year!