Affordable Interior Design by Uploft: Purple Problems and Space Shame

Purple Problems and Space Shame

Nov 17, 2022

I have a confession to make. I've done well, I've done a bad thing. I've done something I told you guys never to do. Not only did I do it once, I did it twice. Let me share the confession with you right here. I have this beautiful stained glass in my dining room. I really love stained glass. It's so beautiful. When I saw it in the listing when I saw it in person, it was just perfect. It's very colorful. And you can see the stained glass all the way from when you walk in the house. So I based the entire color palette of the house off of this stained glass. It has Navy, it has gold, it has emerald green, it has some orange. It's very colorful, very lively. And it changes based on the light in the room. But it does get a lot of afternoon sun and the colors totally change And I based all the colors, all the paint everything off of this palette, it is the inspiration piece for the entire downstairs area.

I wanted to make a bold statement. As you know, I did my rainbow fruit flavors and did a lot of bold colors on the wall paint more than I would normally say as appropriate. But it's my space. And I can break my rules if I want to. And I wanted to, and in the dining room I wanted to make a brilliant deep purple. I found a couple of colors that I think are also pretty good, but very different. But still in that deep saturated plum purple family. I go to the hardware store and I buy my samples because I'm a very good girl, especially with bold colors that I'm not familiar with.

I buy the samples, I put them on the wall, I find one that I really like ,and I move forward with that color. Now I've told you guys many times purple is dangerous. Purple is a horrible color to work with. The other reason is because it's very hard to match purples. Some purples have more blue, and are more like a Periwinkle. Some purples have more red and are more like a deep plum, even magenta. And there's this whole range in between and it's just a nightmareville. When nighttime came and the doors the stained glass did not match this paint color at all.

In fact, I really hated it.

This is the only room in my personal life that I've ever had to repaint. I told the painters guys you did an amazing job. Luckily, it's just the first coat for the second coat. I want you to use this color instead. That will work fine as a base coat. I mean they were only one step away on the chart. But to me it felt like worlds away right? The guys were very obliging. I said I will pay for the discarded cans. This is on me. This was my bad. They change the color with the second coat. And during the day it looks fabulous. During the day I just love it. When nighttime came. I look at that room. I hate it. It doesn't go at all. Purple is such a horrible color. But I'm not going to ask these poor guys to paint it again.

Then my daughter wanted a new vibe for her room and she picked purple. And I was like, yes, let's do the purple. I let her choose the one and It came out really beautifully. But when I tried to buy drapes and a duvet, we couldn’t find the perfect match. And it's again just that subtlety there is no room for error with purple. Anyway, that's my purple shame. I don't know if you can resonate with that. But do learn from my mistakes as a professional designer of two decades, I should have known to not paint rooms purple, use purple in 10% doses throughout your space and no more. No matter how much you love purple.

Without further ado, let me get to the questions that are already in my mailbag.

This episode, we discuss…

[20:27] How do I transform our "Frankenstein" vents (kitchen range hood) into something livable? (Sonia)

[25:21] Where to place the storage cabinets/bench to help with the functionality and aesthetics? What about foam mats? (Stephanie)

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