Sunroom Goes Coral – Time for Color

It’s about time for this sunroom to go coral. It is time for more color and it has been a long time coming!

Do you ever have that project that goes on well longer than you ever intended? Well, you are not alone. I know you guys have seen glimpses of this room on Instagram if you follow me (if not please do) This change over started with just one piece of furniture getting moved to my office and you know how that goes, you move one thing around and now everything needs to be looked at with a new eye. At least that’s the way I work.

I’ll start by saying this room was always kind of half done with a hodgepodge of furniture leftover from spaces in the old house. There we had a small Screen Porch that the black and white rug and whicker came from. The green pieces and antlers came from my husband’s old Man Cave, but the whole look was never very intentional and it was a little bland for my taste.

I decided I needed color and maybe a little more femininity. Since the Master Bedroom is directly off of this space and the door is often open I figured why not make this room’s colors an extension of those?

We also spend a lot of time in this room because of the pond view so I wanted it to feel as lovely as the outdoor view and bring a little of that outdoors in.

To pull this off I needed some inspiration. After much hunting, I found this Richloom Tracey Floral fabric and a rug from South Eastern Salvage for just $89. (If you have never been to a South Eastern Salvage but have one locally I suggest you stop by for a visit, it is quite the treasure trove.)

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With inspiration in hand or I guess underfoot I was ready for a transformation except for my last bit of color, the ceiling proved to be a little more challenging. You see this sunroom used to be an outside porch which was closed in years ago. My vision was to paint the ceiling the same blue as the master bedroom Sherwin William HGTV Skyhouse like many southern outdoor porch ceilings. If you are not from the south or familiar with the tradition of blue porch ceilings, typically call haint blue, here is a little bit of a history lesson.

The idea of the blue porch ceilings was brought to the U. S. by the Gullah/Geechee people, descendants of enslaved Africans, brought to Charleston, South Carolina in the 1500s. For the Gullah, a haint is a wandering spirit, a lost soul that might wish evil on the living. According to the Gullah/Geechee, a blue porch ceiling brought good luck to the home and helped to ward away evil spirits as these lost souls are unable to cross water. A haint blue porch ceiling resembles water and prevents haints from harming the people in the house. The soft blue often used on porch ceilings retain the ghostly name of haint blue, however, haint blue is not a specific color.

What was the problem? I’d like to say the haints were holding me back but really I think it was laziness. Painting the ceiling meant everything had to come off the walls and all the furniture moved out so I bought the paint and it sat in the garage for almost six months all the while allowing all the haints to come on in.

Two weeks ago I finally took the plunge. I took everything off the walls, moved out most of the furniture, and got to work. I want to tell you I can paint walls and trim all day long but I hate painting ceilings and avoid it at all cost so this was a big feat all the way around. I even took down all the vents scrubbed them and painted them to match.

With ceilings freshly painted I moved the furniture back in and amped up the color. Along with the new rug, The chairs go new seat cushion I ordered from Cushions Xpress and I toned down the antlers and added more botanical prints.

I made throw pillows from my inspiration fabric but I also added in pillows and accessories in blues, greens and yellows.

And of course plants, lots and lots of plants. This room is perfect for house plants because it gets plenty of indirect sunlight.

Now I’ve got the kind of sunroom I really wanted. The newly added color makes me happy and I think it makes the green of the plants really pop. Check out the side-by-side comparison.

Daisy approves of the changes too because it flatters her fur and is her favorite spot for viewing the wildlife. She is very tough critic so I must have done something right.