The Dreaded Archway

4 years! That's right, FOUR YEARS is how long I have lived in this house. It has never taken so long to make a house my home in my entire home-owning career! What is wrong with me? I will be honest...I am having a really hard time with all forms of inspiration. I am Google-ing and Pinterest-ing and I cannot seem to have any creative streak being sparked! Thus, this post...

I have a sort of "archway" in my kitchen. It connects two different living spaces, the Kitchen (blue)and the Living Room (yellow). How, may I ask, does one blend this 5 foot space aesthetically? I DON'T KNOW EITHER! This was my first attempt at... something. I did these stripes and then rubbed over the top with a brown paint to "antique" it. My style is definitely more Vintage French Country. And I thought this might work. NOPE!! I hated it the minute it got done. But, because of the amount of time it took, my husband said I couldn't paint over it until  I had lived with it for 10 weeks. Ha! 10 weeks came and went and I still hated it. So right now, it just has primer over it until I can figure out what I want.

I love stripes. Adore them! Long before stripes were popular, I was painting stripes. Being this archway/alcove space is small and can be dark, I have a few things to keep in mind if anything I plan will work.

• Lighting- It cannot be so dark with color that it sucks the light out of the "room".
• Floor- I hate my floor. Have I said before it is the worst decision I have ever made! It is way to dark for my east facing house so again, another light issue.
• Traffic- it is a busy space. It leads to the Laundry Room, Garage, and Master Bedroom (I know! What were they thinking when they designed this house??) I have to have washable paint and colors that keep the eye away from the grime.

I am repainting my kitchen to a lighter color of blue, as light as it is, it is still too dark for my east facing house. And then I am going to repaint my living room to a light color of beige. I have to, because the yellow on the wall ended up having something wrong with it and discolored at the top by the ceiling? Yeah, dunno what happened, but it did. I am thinking of mixing the 2 NEW colors into the archway.

So, in scouring the internet and Pinterest, I have only found a few things I would consider doing:

I like the different sizes of stripes...

...then overlaying vinyl or a stencil.

I like the concept of using horizontal stripes, but not these "even Steven" stripes you see everywhere. So, what if I paint the base color the cream from the Living Room...Then use the new blue I will be putting in the kitchen to make uneven horizontal stripes? Yes, the space would be predominantly blue, but the kitchen table does sit in front of this archway. (But I am not even going to get int to how I will change the LR/Kitchen space when our downstairs is complete and how this paint setup will be very practical...) IF I add a stencil/vinyl overlay, I would put it on one side to keep it asymmetrical. What do you think? Can you visualize? As soon as I kick this flu bug, I will get started and update what it all looks like.