The Green Room

There is an enclosed porch off our kitchen, and when we first moved into our house we kept it closed off from the rest of the house. It was the middle of winter, so it was very cold in there and it became known as "the cold room." There is another small, kind of triangular room off of the porch, which became known as "the weird cold room" due to its irregular shape. 

Of course, as winter turned to spring, and spring turned to summer, the rooms got hotter and hotter. But still, they were the cold rooms. They are both oddly shaped, small, and windowed on all four walls, so we weren't exactly sure what to do with them. We tried using the main room as a mudroom, but that didn't work, because we always use the front door, and you enter this porch through the back door. I tried to use it as my sewing area, but that didn't work, because the space was too awkward to use efficiently and always full of the random items kids tend to drop near entrances and exits. 

So, it sat. And as any unused room will, it slowly became a junk room. I took pictures of it before I put everything away, but I lost them somehow. So you only get to see the clean befores. Which is probably really for the best. But take my word for it: it was bad. 

Something had to be done. I sorted and cleaned and organized and donated. And the room looked better. But still, it wasn't inviting. And I knew it would fill up again, because that is the nature of unused rooms.

So I took the initiative, and filled it with plants. 

And painted it green. I used Ellen Kennon's Peridot, which is absolutely luscious.

I also finally, finally finished the craft area I planned to set up for the girls for Christmas (but it's tiny, and really hard to photograph).

So now we can sit back there while they sit back there, which means they will sit back there more often. I can see our entire backyard from there too, so no more hot afternoons spent sitting in a plastic chair baking in the sun while the girls play outside.

One day I may even do something about that floor.

Ellen Kennon also wrote about my porch on her blog. She talks about the reasons for going green in rooms like this, and a little about how we chose the color. People are sometimes surprised to learn that I use a color consultant, and think it means she just tells me what color to paint everything! Maybe some are like that, but Ellen is great about considering what I like, and often gives open ended advice. In this case, she said to pick any green from her Nature's Palette. I loved the idea of green, and there were a lot to choose from. I think any of them would have been beautiful in this room, so I just picked my favorite one!

I did a Flickr set with all the befores and afters if you'd like to check them out here: Porch