Warming up with Orange

Behold our first finished wall, and yes, it's orange!

Committing to color is scary.  I know it's just paint, and we can always change it, but after the amount of time it takes to apply it, I don't want to think about redoing it any time soon.

I read that in dark rooms it is good to go with warm colors like the sunset.  We chose Olympic ICON paint and primer.  The color is Field Poppy with a satin finish (three coats).

Our fireplace is a great focal point, but the stones are massive and are a little overwhelming for the space.  The grout is also very dark.  Painting the wall orange helps draw attention away from the downsides of the fireplace and pulls out the "prettier" sand and rust colored stones.  Someday, we think we'd like to box in the top of the fireplace and add low built-ins along both sides, giving it a more craftsman-like feel.

Painting the trim white helps brighten up the space and detracts from the popcorn ceilings.  The oak trim is a killer though--it involves sanding, sponging, priming, sanding, sponging, and at least two coats of Valspar's Ultra paint + primer semi-gloss white.

Here, you can see the difference between the old and the new wall.  With some color in here it's starting to look less like an insane asylum, but with three more walls to paint and the entire rest of the house, it's very likely that's where we'll end up.