No Boys Allowed!

In early December, we discovered some warm, blackish ooze coming from the wall in my office/project room.

The plumber wasn't sure what it was. His exact words were "I've never seen anything like this before in my life. If I didn't know better, I'd think maybe your house was possessed." Great...just what every homeowner wants to hear. We suspected it was another broken pipe...we've had several since we moved in.

When they cut open the wall, this was what they found:

Who knows how long it had been spewing hot water into the wall...at least a few weeks. It was a wet, soggy mess in there.


The black goo was a combination of mildew, glue from the baseboards, and hot water. Yuck. After fixing the leak, we waited a while to patch up the wall so that it could dry out.

Since that wall would need to be painted after patching, Steve suggested we just paint the whole room...something I'd been wanting to do!

I wanted a bright and cheerful color - something other than the off-white that was currently on the walls. I went to Home Depot and picked out a few samples and brought them home and put them on the wall. I wasn't crazy about any of them.

Steve has an eye for color and said I needed something more feminine than any I had chosen. He got online, went to the Home Depot paint website, and pulled up some design ideas. This color combination popped up.

I wasn't sure about the pink...I didn't want it to look like a baby girl's room! But the design center online looked beautiful, and we decided to go for it. And while I have disagreed in the past with Steve when it comes to paint colors, I've learned that his eye is better than mine and I should trust him.

Here's the "before" pictures:

It turned out absolutely beautiful—the perfect combination of sophisticated and feminine.

The window wall is a deep plum, while the other three are a much softer pink. The pictures don't do it justice.




I still need to find a few things to accessorize the room...but I absolutely love it! And the best part of all is that because of the color, I can declare it a "no boys allowed" zone and lock myself away for days!