Madness...

Coffee in the Los Angeles skyline mug, "I'll Work For Your Love" by Bruce Springsteen on iTunes. And the morning begins. There're lots of little things I could post about today like getting the fountain article written for GPQ or making up kits of felt fish for J's school's fall festival--the bricks and mortar of the day. But what burns in my soul is a greater question: How should I paint the new studio?

Yesterday I took the little chips I got form Home Depot over and assigned a different pale, safe, neutral color to almost every room. For anyone who has been in our house the color choices are likely to be a shock as the walls of our house are zinfandel, cinnabar, turquoise, cantaloupe, and a green between olive and lime--and that's just downstairs. Upstairs we have faux leather walls in the library, two-tone sponged yellow in the guest room, coral salmon in our bedroom and lavender in J's (and she wants to re-paint it in sea colors with a huge octopus on the wall like the Pirates of the Caribbean Behr/Disney paint theme).

Maybe, to quote my favorite movie, playing it safe is just about the most dangerous thing a woman like me can do. Last night we had dinner with friends Keith and Mike and when I told Mike I couldn't come up with a color to paint the bathroom that would go with the blah beige tile he suggested black. I got to thinking, and while I think black would be too strong, either medium brown with dark brown glaze or a darker brown with black glaze ragged, sponged or other faux-effect over it might be perfect. Then I thought of the tame light green I have planned for the office. What about a deep blue-green glaze colorwash ala Gaudi instead? And for the gallery room how about stark white with pale grey, black and brown marbling veins?

Maybe, for the rest of the rooms, a simple colorwash is all that's necessary to make them vibrant, warm, welcoming and appropriate for a "studio". Heaven knows I have enough books on faux paint techniques, and there are tons of references on-line. I am tempted to try a shading technique in one room where increasing amounts of white are swirled into the base paint as it is painted and then wiped around the walls so it either lightens as it rises or lightens as it falls...

This way lies madness and is what happens when I have a little extra time on my hands.