I know this is going to come as a huge shock to everyone but yes… I am going to be abandoning my glorious deep indigo dining room and turning back to the light side. No, it’s not because Rey is such a kick ass Star Wars character (because oh my god she so is) but because psychologically, I need to.

Swoon Worthy - black console with gold accessories vignette styling

Ya see, here’s the thing. The dining room has been dark for a very very long time. Before I painted it in Dulux Wild Water 1, I’d painted it in Dulux Night Jewels 3 – a deep grey quite similar to Farrow & Ball’s Downpipe.

Swoon Worthy dining room in grey with gold starburst mirror

what the dining room used to look like in dark grey

Yep, pretty much as long as we’ve lived here (going on 5 1/2 years now!), the room has been painted in a deep shade. Now, I initially wanted to keep it dark. You know how much I love a good moody interior and darker paint colours are just sexy as hell. So yes, I still love that whole look. But just not for in here. Not any more.

The British weather has a lot to answer for in this particular case. We have had a particularly miserable winter which followed on from a particularly miserable summer here in the North West. The sun has been absent to the point where I think I’ve seen it less than a handful of times in the last 6 weeks – and even then, it was only for an hour or so at a time. Little wonder when my Twitter feed explodes with OH MY GOD THERE’S A GIANT FIREBALL IN THE SKY WE’RE ALL DOOMED #Manchester on those rare occasions it managed to come out.

Swoon Worthy dark blue dining room with white furniture and starburst mirror

A rare sunny day in the middle of last summer! Happily, we all survived the Giant Fireball of Manchester 2015.

This means this already dark room gets even DARKER. Taking pictures in this space has been challenging – my photos end up grainy due to the lack of light and even though at times the blue colour looks glorious in photographs, in reality, it rarely looks that vivid. I’m tired guys. I’m tired of living in the dark.

Add to that fact, I haven’t been able to use my office nearly as much as I’ve wanted to the last few months. Having a puppy that needs space to run about and needs attention and needs to be able to tell me (by running to the back door) when he needs to ‘go’ means I work very often from the dining room table. Sad but true!

Swoon Worthy dark blue dining room with puppy and cat

The reality of my working day: A rare shot of Pablo who is never far away and Quito who was obviously smaller when this pic was taken! Also, notice all the crap that piles up on that sideboard. #keepingitreal

And of course, it won’t always be like this – he’s still just a baby (nearly 9 months old right now) but soon he’ll be becoming more and more of an independent adult dog and that means in time, I’ll be able to return to using my office on a more regular basis. But for now, it’s important that I can keep a close eye on him, allow him a little bit of freedom and be with him as much as I can. So, that means using the dining room needs to be a pleasurable experience for me to spend so much time in and right now, it isn’t.

One last point… at the moment, the living room (at the front of the house) is painted in a pale grey and my kitchen (at the back of the house) is painted in a brilliant white. I feel like the dining room (which sits in between) is like a little reverse oreo in my house. It doesn’t feel as connected to the other rooms as I’d like it to because it’s like a little black hole in the middle of two pale rooms. I want more of a connection between them all.

Now, you may think after all this that I might choose to paint the dining room in a brilliant white. Alas, with rooms that don’t get an enormous amount of light, that would actually be a big mistake. Pure white ends up looking dirty in low light and while you might think it will brighten it up, the reverse is true. It would only feel more depressing.

Swoon Worthy - living room in pale grey and brights

If there’s one thing that totally surprises me, it’s the fact that I painted my living room (a North East facing room) in Dulux Dusted Moss 2 over 5 years ago now (!) and I have never once wanted to change it. I love the colour – it’s soft and neutral and even when I changed the entire colour palette, it still worked. In fact, it’s the one paint colour I get asked about the most by readers! So you guys seem to like it too. So with that experience firmly in my head, I’m going with pale grey in the dining room as well.

Swoon Worthy - living room in pale grey and brights

Dulux Dusted Moss 2 – not depressing but actually quite lovely

Now, I’ll be honest (see, told you one of my goals is to show flaws and all here on Swoon Worthy) – I actually feel strangely GUILTY about using what could be seen as a bit of a ‘cop out’ colour. It’s like I should be doing something crazy and daring and bold because that’s kind of what people expect of me now ;) However, I want to add that you haven’t seen the rest of the design and yes, there will be risks involved and there will be colour involved – just not in the paint colour!

And yes, I’m kind of sad to see the dark blue go. It is a glorious colour and I don’t regret having it for a few years. It’s just time for change now.

Swoon Worthy - dark blue dining room with white furniture and bright accents

Goodbye lovely blue!

Also, if I had total freedom to do whatever I wanted, I would have loved to go blush pink in this room but I know full well that Wayne would KILL ME if I did that. Never. going. to. happen. So yeah, pale grey it is. Possibly the same shade as the living room or possibly Farrow and Ball’s Cornforth White which I know works well in British grey/blue light – I need to get paint samples but that’ll happen soon enough.

There’s more on the walls (and everything else) that I’ll be sharing with you soon, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, do you hate me now? PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME I PROMISE I’LL MAKE IT UP TO YOU JUST WAIT PLEEEEASE!!

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