Blush walls in Annie's living room! : Annie Elliott Design

Hello, Gentle Readers! Under the heading, “change is good” (subheading, “a slippery slope”), the walls in my living room are now blush (Benjamin Moore’s 050 Pink Moiré)!

Yellow room with white fireplace — In progress. Gotta love careful prep

I desperately wanted to use Farrow & Ball paint. The product is amazing, and I’ve been eager to get back to it…the depth of color is just so gorgeous. Unfortunately, though, the color I thought was going to be perfect, Farrow & Ball’s Pink Ground, looked like old Calamine lotion in the northern light. Sad.

So it was back to Benjamin Moore, tried and true.

Oriental rug — Blush paint samples with the rug that started it all

The catalyst was simply that I was ready for a change, but from a technical standpoint, it all started with the rug. (Which is where you SHOULD start, as you know.)

Our old rug was, well, old. Old and stained. It was light aqua, if you recall: we needed a light rug to let the room breathe with those super-saturated yellow walls. But a light rug isn’t going to last long in a house with muddy kids and muddier dogs. It’s ok, though. It wasn’t expensive, and it was always too small. It had a good run.

I love Oriental-slash-Persian rugs. So I casually started keeping my eyes open for a non-navy, non-red-medallion Oriental rug. When this one popped up on eBay, I pounced. The colors are great, and it’s appropriately worn and vintage (from the 40s or 50s). NOTHING will show on this sucker: not muddy feet, dog fur, or red wine.

I thought it would look great with any number of wall colors. Light yellow, teal, avocado green (ok, that idea only lasted about 2 hours, but still)…but remembering that I wanted a soft color this time around, blush ended up the winner.

Light pink walls in a living room — After the paint, before the furniture was back in place

See how washed out the walls look above? That’s why this room is so tricky! Pink Moiré is darker that what I thought I’d use, but lighter colors just go white in the morning light (the brightest time of day in the living room).

Pink walls with blue sofa and teal oriental rug — Walls done!

And they look a little yellow in the above picture, which was taken at night. Here are more —

Pink living room with floral drapes and Oriental carpet — Walls finished, all the current furnishings in place

Pink living room with pink and white settee and fireplace — Pink living room, looking into the still light blue dining room…light blue for about 12 more hours!

And finally, here’s the room in natural light. This is how it looks right now —

Pink living room with gallery wall — Ta da!

Now imagine the blush walls and teal rug with a dark green sofa, cream and camel chairs, and a reupholstered settee in cream and navy linen. And a new lamp. Just a few changes ;) That’s the slippery slope to which I alluded earlier.

Tomorrow, we paint the dining room.

Yellow ;)

Bossy color / Annie Elliott interiors is a full-service design firm based in Washington, D.C.

Blush walls in Annie’s living room!