How to Create Joy in Your Home

With all my time at home over the past ELEVEN months, I've had many hours to evaluate my surrounding walls. If I have to be here so much, I need the space to bring as much joy as possible. After all, our surroundings matter and greatly impact our well-being. Ask a prisoner.

So with our spaces taking center stage, I'd bet some hard cash that 2021 is going to be the year that homes get lots of TLC including some bold, happy design choices. Life's been weird and hard. We all need joy anywhere we can get it. Grey has been good to us and still has its place, but it's time for some COLORFUL FUN!

Before I jumped into some colorful changes, I got my feet wet (or hands wet) doing a project I've been eyeing for almost three years. The honey oak bathroom cabinets simply couldn't stay for one more second. One bathroom I did white, and the other I stepped more into bolder territory with a deep, dark charcoal. I'm smitten! (but not quite enough to tackle my kitchen cabinets yet)

Doing some furniture painting really got my momentum going. But instead of black, white, and grey, I was feeling ready for some color! 

These past few weeks have been tough. The dreary weather, chaotic political climate, and death of my sweet Grandmother all have had me in a bit of a fog. 

When I'm grieving, I prefer to get lost in a project. Bonus points if I can do it in peace and quiet. Extra bonus points if it brings joy!

And isn't color one of God's greatest prescriptions for joy? The source and giver of all good things really knows what He's doing. 

In the book, "Joyful" by Ingrid Fetell Lee, she describes the science behind how shapes, settings, and colors impact our mood and overall feeling of joy. Neuroscience and psychology back up what we instinctively know: colors help us feel good!

Unfortunately, the opposite is true. When I see a room color that doesn't feel right, I CANNOT UNSEE IT. Such was the case with this awkward little room, or more like oversized closet, on our second floor. Beyond my daughter's bathroom and then closet sits a small rectangular room with no windows. Check out the room in all of it's glory below....

For three years it's been a playroom... kind of. The kids have never really played up there so it's turned into somewhat of a catch-all. I can't really blame them for not utilizing the room. It's dark ...and far away from snacks and the TV. 

Besides, I don't really want them at their ages (8 and 6) to be too out of sight and earshot from me or my husband. Maybe when they are teens I'll let them reclaim the space.... strong MAYBE. For now, I'll welcome, or more like, accept the mess and chaos downstairs.

But back to the wasting-away windowless room dilemma. I decided that instead of tripping over my weights in my bedroom I should move them to the upstairs room in a more tucked away spot.

Two challenges though: 

One, my weights would be out of sight... and possibly out of mind. Two, the room (though painted the same light grey in other rooms upstairs) felt very brownish and dark without any natural light coming in. 

I really needed to make the room inviting enough to lure me up there to work out.

I already had a lamp and overhead light with some pretty bright LED bulbs so I couldn't bring in many more light sources.

BUT I could PAINT!

Turns out something called Light Reflective Value (LRV) plays a big role in how a color is perceived in a room. If you go to a paint brand's website, you can find the LRV of each color. Very helpful, especially for a dark room. This article explains it well.

I researched different colors with higher LRV because, for me, a workout space should be motivating and uplifting.

I dreamt of a light, bright white space with green plant accents, but Emily Henderson told me not to paint a dark room white. Apparently, without natural light, white rooms can fall really flat and lifeless. That didn't sound too appealing so I pivoted instead to one of my favorite sources of inspiration, Young House Love. They did a mural for their daughter's room that seemed like just the thing my dark, sad room needed. See their amazing transformation with detailed instructions here. 

I pretty much followed their exact colors and directions.... with a little less precision. I marveled at their attention to detail in plotting the mural on a scaled-down model of their wall before they started painting. Unfortunately, I'm just not that patient. Instead, I roughly measured out where the lines should start and end on both sidewalls. Then with a pencil, I free-handed the curves to connect them. I'm not going to lie and say this project was super fast, especially if, like me, you've never painted a mural before! Of course, I also couldn't stop at the mural. 

The bright, colorful mural made the tan ceiling look even muddier and sadder. Therefore, it had to be painted white. Then the other 3 grey walls felt left out and needed to be shined up as well. One of the colors in the mural, Snowdrop, was the perfect solution. 

What's a paint project without some snags though?! I also learned the hard lesson when painting the ceiling that if you have air vent covers, they need to be cleaned and inspected regularly for mold. Oh, the never-ending fun of homeownership! 

But back to the actual fun stuff. Here is how it all turned out!

The lines aren't perfect, and I can only bring in so much light in a windowless space, but I'm pretty darn excited about the results. I'm even more excited that I took a risk with some bold colors and learned something new!

Since a before and after is so much fun, here's the messy dark space before it was painted. Don't the colors in the 2nd picture reflect so much more light!?

I couldn't resist getting a snake plant for the corner. I know they are very durable and can survive with very little light, but I don't know how long it will hold up with just an led bulb from the lamp. I was too tired of researching all the things to look into this. Maybe once in a while, I'll move it by a window to keep it happy. Speaking of led bulbs: If you have a room with no windows,  look for an LED bulb with a KELVIN temp of 4000 to mimic daylight. Here are the ones I ordered, And no, I do not get affiliate fees. If I did, I'd tell ya!

So what do you think? Are you ready to color up your walls? Even if you're renting, you could paint some murals on plywood and hang those!

Have you made some different design choices in this D.C. (During Covid) time? I think all of the long-term effects of the pandemic will be very interesting... and hopefully not all grim.

Now, instead of painting murals and changing the ceilings from tan to white in every other room in my house, I should probably get busy using the new workout room for it's intended purpose! 

Happy joy-making yall!

-Amanda