I'm so hoity toity

So, I seem to have acquired an interior designer. Sorta. Kinda.

A friend had a brunch a couple of weekends ago, and when she was pulling together the guest list I asked her to include the aunt who helped pick out her color scheme when she repainted her house. The house looks terrific and uses colors I might not have chosen. My friend had said in the past that her aunt would be happy to help me pick colors, so this seemed like a great way to finagle an introduction.

To backtrack a bit: I moved into my house in January, and it had been flipped over the previous two months. I got what I wanted - a solid house that didn't need work, and it's got terrific light, but it is rather.. beige. I do plan to sell this house in about 20 years...but I suppose I can paint in the interim!

Move-in day; yes, I've decorated some since then!

 However, I've never picked colors before. I am a decisive person, but when there are a ton of options, and one of the options is NON-choice, I'm likely to take the path of least resistance and go with doing nothing. So I picked up some paint chips my first week or so in the house, but pretty much dropped the idea thereafter.

Fast forward to the brunch, and I find myself making a date for Laura to come over and look at my house and talk about colors. She came over on a Sunday morning and spent nearly two hours hanging out, admiring the light, and getting a feel for the space and my thoughts about color.

Then she came over a couple days later and we spent 45 minutes going over some design pages she'd bookmarked with me in mind, looking at ideas for colors and space and contrast and decor. Apparently just painting isn't enough: I also have to do things like curtains, pillows, wall hanging - it's exhausting!

Anyway, she also brought me paint chips for the various rooms. We talked them over, and now she's going to go buy me samples of the paint so I can try them on for size. All this is free, mind you - she's doing it because it's fun for her! She did at least take money to pay for the paint samples!

So, I'll definitely take some before & after shots, because I think this painting thing is going to happen. August is nuts for me, but September is looking good.

My assignment this week: start getting a feel for wallpaper; also go through my flickr albums and look at photos I might like to have framed to hang in a gallery in the hallway.

Eep.