ANDRE BEGIN

When I look back on my big move from rental apartment dweller to full-fledged homeowner of a suburban townhouse I am still surprised by the things I looked forward to doing.

After a decade of using communal laundry rooms, I was beyond excited to have my own washer and dryer. With my own machines, in my own house, I could do laundry at any time I wanted, day or night, instead of lugging a full basket all the way to the laundry room to discover that no machines were available. I was also done with the people who didn’t retrieve their clothes as soon as their load was done thereby creating slowdowns and backlogs for everyone else.

The second item on my list was the thrill of being able to paint walls in the colours of my choosing.

Cream and off-white walls are fine, but as someone with a bit of a creative streak, I looked forward to the day I could leverage pops of colour whether to better complement my furnishings or to change the vibe and energy of a room.

With my rental agreements always stipulating that if I painted a wall in another color, I would have to undo it and repaint before the end of my tenancy, it was a bit of a deterrent to my spirit of adventure. That being the case, I never really changed the color of my walls in any of my rental units.

After years of cream and off-white walls, I wanted more out of life… Or at least out of my paint colors.

I think most people would agree that I have a bit of a colorful personality. Why shouldn’t my walls in my own house reflect that?

But the changes I had in mind were not just a few shades lighter or darker than cream or off-white. We’re not talking about anything in the mocha, celery or greige (grey-beige) category.

In those early years of home ownership, I was a big fan of the show “Trading Spaces”, which was a source of inspiration through the big reveals of colourful walls, and taking note of what appealed to me.

Also, shortly after closing the deal on the house, I started buying more home decorator magazines. This enabled me to take stock of popular, warm, vibrant colors that could help me define my space as truly my space.

The first big project was an accent wall in the living room behind the TV and stereo units. My plan was a clementine shade of orange. I admit it was a pretty ballsy first move into paint colors but I knew that this one was right for me.

What surprised me was that based on the advice of the paint store, to reach that intensity of clementine orange would likely require one coat of primer and two or even three coats of deep orange paint.

Either way, I was ready.

I took great joy and picking up all of the supplies and extra paint needed to ensure this accent wall was exactly the color I was looking for.
When the job was done, I was beyond thrilled at the result and I knew that this was indeed the vibrant accent wall I wanted (and needed) at that point in my life.

Shortly thereafter, my second project was my dining room, which was a half floor higher than the living room where the orange wall was located. From a few vintage points, you could see both walls at the same time, and therefore I could not choose a color that would clash.

I chose to do an accent wall in a warm shade of lemon yellow, in keeping with the bright citrus theme.

Again, it would be a process that would involve at least one coat of primer and at least two coats of regular paint but I made it work.

By the time that the paint had dried, I was already convinced of another winning decision and starting to plan my next move.

The third wall I did was in the hallway by the laundry centre. Given the amount of natural light it received from the south west windows, I could get away with a darker colour.

My choice was another accent wall in a shade of ultramarine blue. By this point I was used to the drill of how many coats of paint were needed to achieve these intense colours. The blue was no different.

To my great surprise, despite the darkness, that hallway remained quite light and bright.

I admit that the next one was a mistake, when I chose a shade of brilliant leaf green for the primary bedroom. Despite its natural tone, I didn’t find it as calming as I thought it would be. That colour stayed up for less than two years.

I ended up changing the paint colour to a shade of white but containing a few drops of purple in it to give it a bit of a lavender hue in certain light. I loved it.

In retrospect, it still impresses me that when the opportunity presented itself, I gravitated to nice strong colors and that I did it unapologetically and with no regret (except for the green in the primary).

When people came to visit, their reactions were interesting when they first noticed the orange accent wall and then the lemon yellow wall. It’s like they would pause for thought, look at me and then think “OK that makes sense”.

Those were those moments of validation that I had picked the colors that really were “me”.

I think another reason why I could get away with it was because I only did accent walls and repainted the others in a bright white. Had I painted all four walls in those intense colours I believe it could have been a little overpowering.

For the 20 years I was in that house, I always enjoyed coming home to those bright, cheerful colors of orange and yellow. No regrets whatsoever!

As I was approaching the point of resale, I hired a company to help me spruce up the walls I didn’t have a chance to repaint yet, with my usual shade of white to play it safe.

When my real estate agent toured the house to offer tips for getting the house ready, I was surprised that returning the orange and yellow walls to a more neutral tone was not on the list.

By that time, I had already changed back the ultramarine wall to white, but she was OK with the orange and yellow accent walls, saying they added a brightness to the north rooms.

I don’t know if the person who bought my house has kept it that way or has changed it, but at this point doesn’t matter to me. It’s not my house anymore.

And in the new house, I was delighted with the color choices that were all very much earth tones, but different shades, hues and intensities offering great variety throughout.

The colours are not as striking as clementine orange or lemon yellow, but I’m OK with that. In this phase of life, living in a country house, the variety of earth tones seems to pair well with our surroundings as well as the pace of life at this point.

When I think back, I amaze myself at my boldness at choosing the colours that I did which I enjoyed immensely for nearly two decades, without ever getting tired of them.

They may not have been a popular choice for most people, but they were right for me. For that, I make no apologies.

When it comes down to it, it was just paint, but it is interesting how our paint colours can be a reflection of our personality as well as the energy that we choose to welcome into our day-to-day lives.

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Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André