Making it ours...

This is the first house either of us have owned that belonged to someone else first. The only exception is the 90 year old farm house the kids' dad and I attempted to rehab and I really prefer to put that whole ten years out of sight and mind...lol. AS E often says, we bought a pool with a house attached when we bought this one. The previous owners, very nice people too, had neutral colors through out. I understand the marketing reasons for this but now the house is ours and we are slowly but surely settling in.
The first room we redid, but did not repaint, was the guest room, also known as Kip's Room despite many claims to the contrary. It is now the way we like it, filled with my antiques and E's bears up on the ledge above the closet. The guest bath has been livened up with citrus colors and new lighting has helped in the dining room and great room. The next room was my workroom and I could not ask for anything better...lovely cabinets, huge workspace and now a pretty pretty carpet.
We have repainted the kitchen but with the same Tuscan gold that was in there and added our huge wine related collection to the ledges above the cabinets.
This brings us to the great room which was painted a dark olive green on three walls. We tried sheer scarves to replace the neutral swag over the room wide doors to the lanai and pool but that was just not it. So, off we go to every paint store and home improvement place in town. Home with about 50 paint samples, narrowed down to 3. In the end we went with the one you see. At first, while wet, it looked like someone had thrown ketchup on the walls but it has dried the color I wanted, a kind of rusty red. I love it!!! It is dramatic and warm and welcoming and I keep roaming into the room and just sighing! We are making this house our own!