A look back at the old house and old Nest Bio

I ran across some flickr photos of my old Nest bio recently, and had a little walk down memory lane. I also had a few big realizations about myself and how my style has changed over the past couple of years.

First, let’s start with this.

Australian researchers have named Pantone 448 Opaque Couché the “world’s ugliest color” for 2016. They asked a thousand smokers which color they found most visually offensive, and this was the color that was chosen. Now they are requiring it to be used on cigarette packaging to discourage smoking.

On the right is my dining room paint color, circa 2005. Sherwin Williams Coconut Husk, if my memory serves me correctly.

Unfortunately this visually offensive color never discouraged me from eating, so good luck with that whole smoking thing.

To be fair, though, it was a really beautiful house. I loved it very much when we owned it from 2005-2010 .

Here’s the floor plan of this house. I think it was about 2200 square feet with an unfinished basement. 

From 2004-2008 I was a very active member of the Decorating and Renovating board at The Nest and before that the Your New Home board on The Knot. My nest name was TheBryansWeBe (aka TBWB). Back then we didn’t blog about our houses… we created bios and directed other Nesties to them when we need to show something to someone. Just say PIB! (pic in bio!)

My Knot and Nest bios were HTML 101 classes for me. I learned how to write very basic code and create page layouts on the web. From there I progressed to using Photoshop to create my bio pages. When I look at them now it makes me smile remembering all the laughter and fun times I had on that board. I met some of my very best friends through the Nest, and I’m so thankful to have been a part of that. I’m also grateful to have a lot of those girls still in my life today. I’ll be seeing a bunch of them again in just a few weeks and I’m pee-in-my-pants excited about it!

But when I look at my old house nest bio pages, I seriously feel like Uncle Knitknots from Imagination Movers. Beige was my signature color. It was everywhere. Walls, cabinets, furniture, floor.

All around.

All beige. I even used dark beige for the background on the page layouts!

And I LOVED it.

I absolutely adored my house at the time. It was a very beautiful house, no doubt. I bought furniture to match the style of the house- lots of scrolly wrought iron and distressed French Country pieces. I had a lot of hand-me-down things that I worked in and around. I adored every inch of our home.

But HOLY MOLY it was dark in there! AND SO BEIGE!! And my photography on the old point and shoot left a lot to be desired. Wheeewww what terrible pictures I took.

Somebody turn on the lights! Oh wait. They’re already on. Nevermind.

Look, here’s a room that isn’t beige! It’s dark olive green with brown accents. Earth tones were my thing, obviously.

Man room? More brown! We even bought a brown slip cover to match the walls.

Even the nursery was beige, beige, beige with some red thrown in.

I even listed out a handy dandy paint chart for anyone wishing to emulate my beige/brown style.

But the only room in the house that I painted myself that I felt represented the true ME, was this one:

My girl crafty room.

I loved being in that room. It was a total mood lifter.

It was painted Behr Celery Sprig- a bright green color. My husband built the desk himself and I spray painted the two little file cabinets to go underneath. I used periwinkle accents and a little bit of black. I loved this room so much. It was a very happy room. Then I got pregnant, and it all got ripped out to make room for a guest bed so I could sleep upstairs next to Garrett.

Such is life, huh?

But here is what I have learned about myself from looking back on these old photos.

I am no longer a beige person. I crave light. I am in love with all those white rooms I keep pinning. Blue is my signature color. I’ve always loved blue and always will. I need lots of windows thrown open and the sun streaming in. Heavy curtains make me depressed. I am tempted to paint every room in my house in high or semi-gloss paint to reflect the light better. I miss having periwinkle blue and green and clear, non-muddy paint colors in my life. I want a much more relaxed and laid back style in my house instead of being so formal and stuffy.

So, slowly but surely, I’m trying my best to make the transition in the new house from boring dark beige to something lighter and brighter and airy-er. Exactly where I’m going, I’m not really sure. Somewhere between coastal cottage and rustic cabin and normal everyday home. I just know that I want to move as far away from overdoses of beige as possible.

I realize there’s a big chance that in another five to ten years I’ll be ready for another change. But that’s the beauty of interior designs. They are constantly changing, ever-evolving, always keeping us on our toes.

It’s fun to take a little stroll down memory lane every now and then. You have to know where you’ve been to figure out where you want to be.