I’ve already posted photos of the wall color we settled on for Xander’s nursery at the West Connecticut Street house (which eventually became Clare’s nursery for a few months, before we moved to Olympia). What I haven’t shared is the initial attempt my husband made at surprising me with a bold new color on the walls:
I went to Chicago to visit my best friend Kate and meet her new daughter Annie when I was early in my second trimester. While I was gone, Michael did all kinds of fantastic house projects: installed new light fixtures in all the bedroom, removed the terrible track lighting from the living room — and painted the room that would become our son’s nursery.
To say that I didn’t like the color would be putting it mildly. I hated it. But I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, so although I was honest about being unsure about it, I said I’d live with it for awhile. In the meantime, I quizzed every person who came through our door, to see what they thought. It was nearly unanimous, with 99% of the votes going in my favor — thumbs down.
I pulled out the big guns a few months later, just weeks before the baby was due, when I asked our kitchen designer to look at the color and give me her opinion. She chose the red we went with in our new kitchen and Michael and I both trusted her great eye. Paula explained why it wouldn’t be a great choice for a nursery — unless our goal was to have a baby who couldn’t relax or, you know, sleep.
I loved her.
Just before my due date, when I was in serious nesting mode, Michael had to travel for work and I decided to spruce up the color in our study. I originally painted the room — before we moved in — the same light yellow we’d liked in our previous place. But it never quite worked in the study; just seemed a bit too dull.
It was my turn to miss the mark:
Unfortunately (for Michael and me — neither of us liked it) that bright gold stuck around a lot longer than the crazy green — because who has the energy to empty a room full of books and CDs again, especially once a baby is on the scene?
Eventually, when it came time to turn the study into our bedroom (so Xander could move into our original bedroom and Clare into Xander’s), I transformed it with a nice, staid taupe. Because we like to be able to relax and sleep at night, too.
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