Blue

I love blue. According to family lore, which I'm happy to spread as Truth, I expressed my preference for blue at a young age. Around the time I figured out how to speak, I announced and, in fact, insisted "me wear blue today," except that I couldn't say the "bl" sound and it came out something like "me wear bwue today." In any event, my parents then spent a lot of time pointing out the blue in the existing elements of my wardrobe (dots, buttons, trim, etc) since they weren't exactly going to replace the existing clothes with all new blue ones. My mom once wondered if my love of blue emerged from an antipathy to the pink clothes in which she had dressed me until I demanded blue options. As a result, she noted, she never gives all-pink baby gifts which I think is wise on many levels, from the practical to the philosophical. In any event, whether for biological or cultural reasons, I am consistently drawn to blue (that I was quite opinionated from the get-go is a topic for another time).

It thus came as no surprise to my parents that I recently painted my bedroom blue (much to my mother's chagrin, as the room was originally yellow (her favorite color)). The original yellow, a sort of goldenrod, was fine...


...but yellow is definitely not blue, wacky logic problems and existential crises notwithstanding. I then spent a lot of time debating exactly what shade and hue of blue with which I wanted to surround myself. My bedroom if on the small side (about 9 3/4' x 9 3/4') which, if house color theorists are right, would make a dark blue room feel confining. Alas, I tend to like darker colors more than lighter ones. On the upside, however, there is a lot of white in the room-- the trim of the one window (seen above) as well as three white doors (to the hallway, to the closet, and to the porch) so I felt I could lean toward darker shades without worrying about creating a cave for myself. After collecting lots of chips, I decided on "Sapphire" by Sherwin-Williams. It's a middle blue, with white and purple undertones, perhaps something akin to "cornflower" or "French" blue. Whatever its name and qualities, I'm a fan:


The photo makes the blue look a little brighter than I think it does in real-life, but so it goes. The paint job has, however, added another crafty project to my list: a new duvet cover (unless someone would like to give me a nice white one). As luck would have it, I dyed my previously off-white duvet cover brown earlier in the summer because I used to live in an all-white-walled room and found the white duvet cover very boring (and, also, it was technically ecru with some green undertones that I really disliked).


The quilt lying on the bed, the second quilt I ever made, actually looks quite nice in the room, but doesn't fully cover the brown comforter, so it's not a real solution for the brown impinging on the blue goodness of the walls. When I laid out Jen and Claire's chuppah on my bed, it looked great with the walls, so that's one design option. I'm thinking a mostly white quilted top with some blue around the borders, but I'm open to other suggestions as well. When the weather turns really cold (which I hope is not too soon), I'll bring out my winter flannel duvet cover which is white and therefore not a problem. In the meantime, I'll be living with the brown.

And speaking of brown, this is the front of my house:


I live in the apartment on the second floor, which is the same as the apartment on the first floor. I recently learned that the duplex was designed by and built for by two "spinster women" (it wasn't clear if they were sisters, cousins, or friends) in 1924. They stacked two identical units atop one another and then lived together but separately for the rest of their lives.

And thus ends my first "this is what my apartment looks like" post, much requested by several readers.