Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Pompeii Red

Sitting at the breakfast table the other morning, my husband out of the blue said, "I want to paint the wall over the fireplace."

Oh, no, here we go again, I sighed . . . only to myself, I wouldn't want to offend the guy. It's just that every so often he gets this urge to paint something. My kitchen now has blue and yellow walls. He convinced his company to paint their interiors green and orange.

Not that he doesn't have a great sense of style and color. It's just that I don't have "the vision thing." I can never imagine what something is going to look like if you change it. I like things just the way they are, thank you very much. If it's not broken, why fix it? And so on. 

So, I have learned to close my eyes and make the leap of faith. If he thinks it'll be great, it'll probably be great, so I let him paint. The only thing I have learned to put my foot down on is the choice of color. The blue and yellow kitchen was my last act of total blind faith. Live and learn.

He magnanimously said, "You chose the color. If you're happy, I'm happy." Such a sweet guy. So, what color do I want? Hard to say, when I really kind of like the wall white, just the way it was . . .

And then it hit me, Pompeii Red, the perfect color to complement our red and brown sofas and red-brown Oriental carpet. Decision made, the man dashed off to the hardware store and immediately came back with a 
can of paint labelled "Pompeii Red." 

Perfect!

Until he started painting . . .

Pompeii brown maybe . . .
That is so not red, it's brown, plain old brown to my eyes.


Opinions differ on what shade Pompeii Red actually is. Check out the variety here.

And so began a day-long paint-mixing experiment. What color would we get if we added a bit of red? Or white? A touch of yellow?


Still too dark! I wanted a bright, luminous color, not a dead, flat color.


Finally, we found the perfect blend.


The maestro at work.


Well? What do you think? Does it work?


Does it say Pompeii Red to you?


Too much of a good thing is never enough when my husband is painting, so we got a bonus accent wall panel, too.

20 comments:

janice said...

Your husband and I would get along very well...i'm always painting. everyone at the paint store knows my name...it's hi Janice...what are you painting today....


P,S,
I already want to move to Italy

Couture Carrie said...

Looks gorgeous, darling ~ love it!

xoxox,
CC

Notes She Wrote said...

wow it turned out great!! I totally do not have the "vision thing" either. I feel like I have zero creativity when it comes to interior design and especially painting walls!! You're lucky to have him:)

Notes She Wrote

Jan said...

Bravo! The color is terrific, and also painting the slim wall was a nice touch. BTW, the Pompei Red floral pillow on page 7 of the various interpretations of P. Red might look great on the sofa.

xoxoxo
Jan

Theodora Ofosuhima said...

Looks great Pompeii Red to me :). He did a great job.

Italy is great, I've never being to the south, I stopped at the center. How about you, have you been to the north?

Sara Louise said...

Your fireplace is gorgeous! I love that it's round and the color looks fantastic! :-)

Jessica said...

I've never seen Pompeii Red before so I have nothing to really compare it to but I think your walls look great.

Stasha said...

It looks great. I love accent walls. Don't have any myself, all white in my house. Because it goes so well with a big, hairy, black dog...

Unknown said...

That is so sweet--I love that he's so involved with your house. The color warms up the room too!

xo Mary Jo

rebecca said...

i love the color you chose! a beautiful rosy red cheeks color.

AiringMyLaundry said...

I love that color. Beautiful!!

Lou said...

you got the color exactly right. looks fabulous!

Lou said...

you got the color exactly right. looks fabulous!

LindyLouMac said...

It looks lovely but I think Pompeii Red does probably as you discovered have a touch more brown in it, I think similar to terracotta.

Tracy Wilson said...

I love where you took it!
What a strange name for "brown". Ugh.
But you made it look stunning, in the end. Love the curved wall, BTW.

Tracy

Anonymous said...

i love the pop of color it gives your room!

Penelope said...

We just switched the boys room to where the girls was. Now they have a pink wall that needs to be painted "Basketball Orange". Any suggestions?

LBDDiaries said...

I like it. It really makes that corner pop! Of course, I like unsuual colors. I can't believe how many different variations there are of Pompeii Red!

Francesca said...

very funny! I really like your Pompey red. I made the mistake of choosing "salmon pink" for my kitchen, and I got a prosciutto cotto shade of pink which I learned to live with.

Crafty Housewife said...

This is beautiful! I LOVE the curved wall! They just don't bother with such details in the states.