Living with Swine
In light of my professed 2011 Home Goals from last week, I thought today I’d talk about how many “swine walls” I still have to paint in my house by showing you some before photos. I know! Can it get any more exciting on a Monday morning?! So awesome. Not sure if this will motivate me or depress me.
Let’s talk about my swine dilemma in a little more depth, shall we?
You can see in the above photo that I recently painted my dining room, but then I just kind of stopped mid-wall between the dining room and the living room. Once you go into the living room, you’d pretty much have to keep painting forever. And so if I went on to paint the living room, I had to make some decisions. I was paralyzed.
I’m really bad at making decisions.
It is an overwhelming amount of swine to deal with. I know it is hard to really capture the true essence of swine in my photos. In fact, you might even think the walls look just fine. But as I’ve mentioned, the swine walls give everything a sickly mauve glow instead of the warmth I want. Here is a better picture of what swine really looks like, in a before picture from my family room.
I’m SO ready to kick the swine to the curb. But it won’t happen overnight. I’m going to have to just keep on painting. And painting. And painting. Annnnd….dddd, painting.
Look up, look down, look to the right and left, swine is everywhere!
Another collision of new paint and swine.
Swine on so many walls, in the living room, in the entry, and all the walls connect to other VERY TALL WALLS that go upstairs and down hallways.
Can you see why I’ve been overwhelmed? I’d rather go hide under my pillow than to face all the swine. But every day I wake up, and there it is. Mocking me.
And this is not even all of it. Every.single.bedroom, bathroom, office and my laundry room are still covered in swine. I am not even going to show you all the rooms with swine walls because it would make this post five times as long and ten times as depressing. We’ll talk about those rooms in a separate post sometime, when I can muster up the energy to face it.
Let’s not forget, though, how far I’ve come with the Great Swine Cover Up in the past year! Even though I’ve been kind of lame for not reviewing my top projects of 2010 yet, eek…FAIL on my part…I did actually make a bit of progress with room painting in 2010.
I wanted to let you know that I used the studio taupe color in our dining room after seeing it in a picture that you posted here. We love it!
Yay! I’m glad you like it as much as I do!!
I feel your pain…only my house is covered in random bad paint color choices, it was pepto bismol pink I. The bathroom, teal in the dining room all the way through the upstairs hallway, baby blue in the kitchen, swine in the living room, the deepest blue you can imagine with splatter paint (a-la 1980s) in the nursery! I’ve painted all but the kitchen and upstairs hallway and the master but the master just has bland light beige so it doesn’t seem as terrible! I look forward to your color choices!! Good luck with all that swine!
I believe that at some point, your former home-owner lived in OUR house. Everything was also pink here. We thought it was some “neutral” shade until we saw “oops-es” on the white ceiling & saw the variation in color…PALE PINK. Our house is small, so we’ve managed to do away w/ the pink, well — all but the PINK CARPET in the living room. Talk about putting a cramp in your style! Even all of the bushes surrounding the house were…you guessed it — PINK.
oh my. lol
I gotta say that all these SWINE pictures made me laugh! Looking forward to seeing the after photos!
It’s just so funny, Melissa. I know, not to you. But the entertainment of all the swine is priceless! Can’t wait to see how you cover up the Oink.
You can do it, Melissa! Love the colors you’ve chosen so far – can’t wait to hear more about them!
Your post made me laugh…can’t wait to see what amazing things you do!!
Oh how I feel your pain. I have beige carpet that mocks me every morning. I can’t wait to rip it up!
Don’t even get me started on my carpet. ;-) of course, if i have to live with it forever I will…but i am hoping it will have its day of reckoning!
First off…. you have a gorgeous home! Second, I can see the swine and I feel your pain. Can’t wait to see your amazing transformations!
Melissa,
Good luck exterminating the swine. I am sitting here looking at the dreadful wallpaper (and sage green trim) and deciding which room to begin in … a wallpapered room (fun fun fun) or one that was painted the primitive mustard yellow that always looks dirty (with sage trim of course) What were the previous owners thinking?!
Your Friend,
Deborah
we actually have an entire house update that we’ve been tackling since we moved in – but not very effectively…read slow.
And this house seems to mock me, unlike my other houses, where i could tackle one room and mark it off my list. This house seems to give me one piece for one room, then i find something for the other room, then we paint the hallway – NOTHING IS COMPLETE AND IT’S MAKING ME CRAZY.
CHECK OUT MY KITCHEN & LAUNDRY makeover today
http://www.these-are-the-days.com and hopefully you won’t think it’s all swine. :)
If I lived nearby, I would come help you paint!!! I love your plans.
Oh man I feel your pain. Our new house is covered in that horrible dirty looking renters cream and our rental before we moved was fleshy peach. It was terrifying.
Melissa, you are too funny, I laughed out loud while reading this post! And I think I’ve got you beat in the swine department – my “new” house actually has lovely silestone SWINE colored countertops! Whats a girl to do about that? It’s not in the budget to rip them out so I’m pretending they don’t exist and painting everything around them. I can understand your pain to wake up every day to swine! :)
NO! I don’t blame you at all pretending they don’t exist. lol, what are people thinking when they put in things like that?
Ha! Why do builders choose this color. Looks great on the paint chip until you notice the pink undertones, telling you what it will do when the sun hits it. Love the look of the paint in the dining room, is this where you are going?!
Good luck! Janell
I agree, builders need to seek a little advice before they paint their houses. There are so many wonderful neutrals that don’t involve pink!
That reminds me of the color that was on my trim in my living room (now my trim is a pretty white). I just never could understand why someone would use that color. I’m sorry it’s all over your house. I can see why it’s overwhelming. It will get done eventually. And you will love it. :)
If I were you I would start with the smallest rooms and paint them first. Starting with the rooms you use the most! That way you can have something done somewhere and you can see the finished product! After all, it’s only paint! Follow your gut and pick something you love. Then even when the evil swine feels overwhelming you can have a few small spaces that are an inspiration.
Your post cracked me up! And I understand-my basement is swine. Well, half of it. I repainted one half, and now the pink is even more obvious on the other half. My mom keeps saying, “I like it!” Bleh. Work in progress! Can’t wait to see what colors you are choosing.
Too, too funny! Love your photo dialogue!
Can’t wait to see what you will do with all those ‘swine’ walls!:)
Wishing you success…You’re on a roll!
Joanne
Melissa,
LOL!!! When we moved into our house every room had been painted yellow, including the ceilings of each and every closet…fortunately the real estate rep had recommended the owner paint over the yellow. A neutral, boring tract-house white was painted on the walls, except the closets—we have replaced all of the yellow and I understand how discouraging paint can be until you are able to get your own paint colors.
May 2011 be the year to end swine colored paint in your lovely home.
Karen
Oh wow! LOL How I relate! I am so sorry that you had a foolish builder! Swine pink…what are they thinking?! Your home is lovely though…don’t let all of those interesting walls overwhelm you. Break it down and focus on just one room at a time. I understand the feeling though…all of our walls have a slight yellow tint to them! :D
Praying for you as you face the challenge!
Building Home with Him,
Mary Joy
PAH! You think your walls are swine infested! Come take a look at my horrible colored walls!!! They are 10x darker and pinker! EWW! So depressing, and since we live in a rental we can not paint!!!!!
Needless to say I am over these walls and we are getting ready to move! =)
Yes, lol, I can imagine worse! You poor thing, glad you have the opportunity to move! If you were stuck with them I guess you’d have to find some creative ways to distract the eye, right?
Please, please, please post pictures of the rooms that have had the swine abolished and let us know what colors you chose!!! We are struggling with our ALL one color walls ourselves!
So help me, if I didn’t trust you and if you didn’t say that the swine is a terrible mauvey shade, I’d run out and buy that swine paint today. It looks fantastic to me. Sort of like a café au lait color, which I find highly appealing. Speaking of which… NO! I am not heading for a paint brush, paint can or any other such thing. All the best to you, my dear!
Glad you trust me on this Vee. I know my photos can’t capture what I see. And in some light of the day, it is indeed fine. But unfortunately, that isn’t enough of the day for me. :-) The pink times out do the cafe au lait times!
Enough of the swine whine.
Hi Melissa,
I have to admit …I thought you were talking about swine flu not your walls! It’s so irritating to live with colors you hate or want to change, but when you’re done it will be wonderful……just keep thinking of that.
I totally understand what you mean about becoming overwhelmed! I am the same way…I think about all I have to do & then get overwhelmed and find something else to do so that I don’t have to think about it! It is definitely a lot of swine, but I believe in you….YOU CAN DO IT!!!
OMG – I have some swine walls too. Who knew they were called that :). It’s part of my goals for 2011 to get rid of the swine. Now I really feel inspired to do it.
Now you know. :-)
Hi Melissa. I can so relate to how you feel right now. I like to call the beige that I have on a lot of my walls right now “dinge”. I can’t wait to get rid of the dinge.
We haven’t started any of our projects for 2011 yet, as we are waiting for our tax refund. The IRS won’t even start accepting until Friday, though, so we have to wait a little bit longer. Boo hoo!
Hope you have a great day!
Beth.
All in good time, Melissa! It will be awesome when you are done. I like the idea of the white painted boards for the ceiling.
Keep us updated! It is fun to see other folks projects!
I’m sorry, but I had to laugh at this swine dilemma! If it were me, I’d have told the builder/realtor that I really liked the house but would only buy it if they repainted. Maybe that wasn’t an option for you, though.
I see where others have had the same color? What is it…a swine conspiracy or just a humongous discount on horrid colors?
Here’s a thought on your stopping point for your dining room paint (love that color!) maybe you could just put another post up next to the wall? It could maybe not be quite as wide as the one there now. (or do I mean deep?) Have fun painting!
YES! I almost didn’t want the house the color was so unsettling to me. I totally would have insisted he paint them, but we had to rent the house first and it all became a bit awkward to ask him to paint by the time we were ready to buy it. Darn.
Well now!
Let’s look at the positive of all of this! ;o)
At least SWINE is neutral.
At least it’s SWINE and not dark burgundy!
{I do not do well with BURGUNDY!}
At least you have those LOVELY huge windows!
And at least you get to wake up to the beautiful Northwest…every day! Yeah!
Oh!
And at least you have oooooodles of giggles every New Years Eve with that karaokee machine!
And…at least all of that SWINE is trimmed in that lovely creamy WHITE! ;o)
Hugs to you Melissa!
Take your sweet time and ENJOY the PROCESS!
xo
Melissa,
I haven’t commented on your blog before, but this post made me laugh out loud on this cold January morning. I love your sense of style and HUMOR. Love that you keep it real girl with the Karaoke machine and screwdriver. Looking forward to see what happens with the swine ;)
I feel your pain……………but mine is mint green. Mint green everywhere!!
Can’t wait to get crackin on this place now that the outside is painted. YAHOO!!!
Melissa, I feel your pain, but I know you will get the swine out of your home this year!! I have proclaimed this year my year of “The Purge!” I have to clean out big time. I have started on the small areas so far and I am working my courage up to the big closets and the dreaded garage,Yucky!!! If you look at my post today you will see exactly how my mind has been working on over-load, Happy Monday, Kathysue
Hi Melissa! I have an idea. Bite the bullet and choose the colors that you want (I KNOW that’s hard) and then have a painting party with your youth group! You know like a painting weekend marathon, complete with pizza or whatever. Maybe on one of the three-day weekends? You ARE blessed with a large home (*jealous sigh*) so it might not all get done, but I’ll bet a very large chunk of it would be. Then you could easily tackle what was left over, especially if you choose the areas that bother you most. Hope this is helpful. I know you are thankful for your home. Just remember your blessings! :-)
Seriously I am LAUGHING so hard at this post. SWINE!!!!! I feel your pain with the awful paint colors but I’ve not yet had to deal with TWO STORIES of it.
I declare 2011 to be swine free ;)
Not sure but I’m guessing you’re a little stressed at this point!!! You will do great, you always do. I’m new at this blogging stuff but I have been a decorator a long time and I also need a major change. My husband is freaking out…..Thanks for the laugh!
Ha! This is a great post! Ooooh the swine!! I’m sure you can paint your way out of it. You can do eeeeet!
I really can understand the overwhelmingness of wrong wall coverings! I,too, had two story walls covered in victorian wallpaper of yellow birds and huge magnolia flowers!!!! Your site is so enjoyable, I’m so glad I’ve become a member. You did a lovely job of the dinningroom, stopping at a great point. I agree with the idea of putting a narrow white divider border. This will define the dining room and when you paint the living room, it will still be viable, or if you choose the same color, it will easily be removed. The living romm is overwhelming, so I think if you do everything else first, as it can be broken down into manageable jobs, when you do the livingroom ALL WILL be finished. It will help you make a decision on the color also. Maybe you will be able to have someone (many painters work on side jobs) come in and do those tall scary wall!
May you be Blessed always.,
Sharyl
I totally get where you are coming from, the house we are renting had a bright pink bonus room and bathroom, I couldn’t stand it any longer so I painted, the rest of the house is contractor white that is 10 years old = gross!!
Oink, Oink,
Michelle
OMG!! My walls are swine too, but we gave them the name “Cover Girl Foundation in icky flesh tone!” My kitchen and bedroom are this color. I get that it’s supposed to be a neutral, but this is just wrong! The kitchen cabinets are builder grade honey oak making for a color combination that forces you to squint and wince at the same time!! UGH!
I know just what you mean!! I live in a rental house, and there’s nothing I can do about my swine walls! It covers the whole first floor of the house! I was calling it pig flesh before I read your blog, LOL! In some light, it doesn’t look too bad, but most of the time, you are right, it is depressing and makes everything look dingy.
Your dining room looks great!
I’m glad I’m not alone in my suffering. I have the same unpleasant swine color in my master bath. My tub and toilet and sink are all swine. But the real kicker is the total color palate. Swine paired with white might be tolerable for a season. I have swine combined with taupe tile and goldenrod walls. And the walls are venetian plaster, which I like when done well, but this was done very poorly. Not the best look. Oh, and the previous owner also painted the nice alabaster glass shades on the light fixture in the same goldenrod tone. Lovely!
I feel your pain…..our bedroom was a horrible “swine” color, in semi-gloss…except for one big ugly splotch of totally flat paint. We’re guessing they ran out of paint and forgot what gloss the original can was? Anyway, it’s a creamy blue now, after 2 years of paint chips and swipes of sample paint stuck up every where :) Good luck with the swine eradification!
This post made me LOL!! I totally feel your pain, my walls are painted all the painfully same color, I hate it, and its supposed to be somekind of neutral bone color or whatever its drab and depressing to me. You have totally inspired me to TAKE CONTROL and start looking at some paint chips!! Bravo!!
I feel your pain since I have swine colored tile all over my master bathroom—the floors, walls, counter, ceiling, and the toilet. It makes me ill to see it, but it’s going to take a lot of saving to finally banish it. Good luck on your painting!
I feel your pain……painting woodwork was brown, doing white 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of white…..lots of doorways…..ugh……
We call your swine color “band-aid”. We had a band-aid colored dining room fixture when we moved in. Good luck painting!
When we lived in GA the house we bought had a similar swiney color in a lot of the rooms of the house. The whole basement level, the foyer, halls, bedrooms. You get the picture. Some rooms bugged me more then others. It just depended on the light. I painted almost every single room of that 3 story house before we moved. I only had 2 left and one was a blue color. So I know just how you feel. Love the new taupe color. Looks like a relaxing color.
You crack me up. Who let the swine out, who, who-who? Couldn’t resist. Your home is going to be a beast to paint–I have the big 2 story walls too and had to hire someone for that part. Can’t wait to see the new color palette! What are you going with, or did I miss that post? I’m sure I did. Gray? I’m loving gray. :)
Oh duh, the Studio Taupe? Looks beautiful in dining!
We moved into a house last summer with pinky-beige walls. I do not like pink. I do not like beige. I certainly do not like them together! I never knew the name until I found your blog. My walls are SWINE also! We only have 1100 sf of it to cover though…. and we are over halfway done. The yellow we chose covered the swine quite well!
Keep the faith!
I’m looking forward to your painted rooms. I’m still thinking about what I am going to do with paint. Our son recently fixed the dry wall in our hall and now it’s time to paint, but painting that hall connects to our great room so…..
Jody
your home is a fabulous palette to work with. we love the homes in Rosemary Beach, http://www.rosemarybeach.com/ where we vacation each summer. It’s fun to look at some of the rental houses for decor ideas…We were inspired by the decor there and brought home several colors we use at our home, Benjamin Moores: “Nantucket Grey, Titanium, Bennington Grey, Briarwood, and White Dove. Can’t wait to see the beauty continue to unfold in your home
That was a funny post! Sorry about all the swine and I think that MS paint is going to look fabulous!
Oh Swine……I know it well:(
Boo Hoo Swine! My Swine was called Warm Sand and it took me 5 years to get rid of it. The only hint left is the toilet room in master bath. I ended up having to hire someone to do all the two story areas. That is the problem with all these flowy new homes, the rooms don’t end and you have to commit to a color all through. Oh the pressure!
I’m wondering what you have on the ledge over the front door. I have a problem with decorating that area since it is narrow and hard to get to. It used to be swine colored too!
I love the new color. I also live in Washington (nearer Seattle than you) and colors here seem weird to me. While I love grey, it is grey outside so much not sure how we would like it inside. We also have one of those strange “what is that for and why is it way up there” plate covers.
I love this post because it’s the kind of thing I would be thinking but may not have the nerve to write.
My husband painted his old house a color that seemed pretty in some light but was way to peachy at other times of the day. It drove me NUTS!
Heavens! That is a lot of swine!! I can say that I am excited to see what you do with all that swine. :)
My home goals accomplished thus far…get a packin. We are moving in about a month toward where the city ends and the country begins. We can’t wait, and there will be plenty to do!
OH MY GOODNESS!!
Suddenly my office and hall way don’t seem so daunting!
You are brave and awesome! I can’t wait to see the AFTER pictures.
(o:
As you described your swine colour I thought “thats just what I’ve painted under the dado and picture rails in our hall, sitting and main bed”. Our version is Dulux Sago in Aus (http://www.taradennis.com.au/trends/wintercolours/tabid/754/Default.aspx), but it works wonderfully in our light in the southern hemisphere creating a really ethereal feel. Well it had to better than the dark dusky pink that was there combined with butter cream and a dark eucalyptus green trim!
I do understand the overwhelming nature of painting though as we still have our main open plan living areas to do which we are dreading
This post made me laugh. It is your burden to bear … to care so deeply about color. And so you end up with a warm, beautiful inviting home, unlike me. :-) My feeble brain, just learns to not notice what I dont’ like. And btw, I think I have that entry way light fixture too … and all the coordinating ones throughout the house. Must be a Northwest thing.
ugh, that IS overwhelming. those big, tall walls are so hard to paint!
Oh, SOB. I hear you. The SWINE!! What was with it?! Before we moved into our home in June, it was swine. Ev.Er.Y Where. Floor to ceiling. We paid a man $2500 to repaint the entire house, and it was worth EVERY penny. One little room, my craft room, is still pink. It’s a nice reminder of where we came from! (We went with a nice Benjamin Moore grey for most of the main living area, Wedgewood grey (which came out REALLY blue) for our bedroom, and the kids rooms are done up in pink and white for the girl, and blue and sand for the dude.)
Good luck!!!!!!
Oh, PS – We have a few of those odd plate covers, too. They hide speaker wires, from a whole-house speaker system project that the ORIGINAL owner of our home started. We’re the third owners. heh.
Oh….the misery of miserable paint! We put on a new addition in 2005, and I was bothered by the paint choice of the entry hallway, as we had decided that all rooms must flow….all rooms must flow……this would simplify any future choices regarding furniture, pillows, colors, drapes, you name it! I got this tidbit from some decorating (HGTV most likely) and it was a great place to start. So….we thought, we’ll do the new hallway upstairs first since it was the place where the most new paint was going—as it ends up in the front foyer of our tiny cape cod home, and winds through to the other rooms on the first floor. I thought, grays, taupes, and browns would be a great neutral palette, but secretly yearned for blues, since just about any blue is my favorite color and we live very close to the coast. Neutral won out, and I selected something called COYOTE FUR.
We finally hired painters in 2006 to put it on, and when we got home later that first day and saw it coming down the stairs that night, we had them stop.It was more like coyote mange. Or, coyote -I ate something bad and threw it up…Coyote ate a taco and had diahrrea…Coyote made a bad choice at the sushi bar…..Coyote got a bad dye job….it was awful! It was yellowish, brownish, beige-ish and in certain light looked like bile. WELL. We lived with it for 6 more years, since I wanted my husband to help with the paint colors–since we had even more renovating work completed.
Our newest bathroom plus all slate tiled front entryway, door, and hidden repairs were completed in 2012, and I broke out the blues at the paint store and never looked back. We are a happy blue family now, and things are looking up for our next remodeling/painting project, too. I say, emphatically, GO WITH YOUR FAVORITE COLOR! Let there be no more swine, and no more mangy coyote fur!!!!
Best Regards, Deb
I was looking for fiddle-leaf fig pictures, came across your blog, started reading, and found the SWINE! Wow! I feel your pain! We moved into our house Jan 1, 2012, and in the last year and a half I was getting rid of my swine. Someone thought it would be a good idea to refresh the house before putting it on the market, and they went with the worse shade of beige-pink-orange ever.
It doesn’t matter what I put over it, it always looks a million times better! No one seems to understand me, too, they all must be color blind. “It doesn’t look that bad – at least it’s clean”, and so on. Man, try to live in the house painted one and one only color without getting crazy. I love branding it “swine”, fits awesome. Doing laundry? Cooking, taking a shower? Going to be, waking up? Pulling into the garage? SWINE! Still a lot of it left, but I’m getting there!
Hi, Melissa! I know this is an old post but I just read your “Love Your Home” book and was curious about this swine walls you were talking about… It looks like on Wi-Fi and data that these pictures are not loading. The Flickr link is no longer working. Is there another article where you talk about it or can you fix the pictures? 😁