The saga continues. Last week, I needed to select paint colors for the house. This is like going to a candy store and trying to decide which color jelly beans to buy—they’re all so tempting! So I went to the paint store, bought the “fan of paint,” and took it back to my new home with Sister. I spread it out on the kitchen table and started to plan the walk (in my mind) through the house. I usually opt for more colonial, subdued colors, or neutrals with pops of color in the textiles.
As I fanned out the color charts, here she comes. “You should add some color in your life! You are so boring,” she tells me. Immediately my heart skipped a beat. She let me know that bright green was the Pantone Color of the Year and I should incorporate this into my paint scheme. Bright green, apple green, acid green, and whatever else you want to call it … it is green. Now you know I am a blue and white girl, so I sat there in total disbelief that my sister would suggest that I step outside my signature color palette.
Harkening back to our growing up, we have always been polar opposites in most things (except the Southern rules that mom taught), especially in our choice of clothes and colors. She always opted for the ruffles and lace on a full skirted dress. I would always choose a sailor dress or coat dress. Hers would scream pink, mine didn’t. I wear solid colors and she wears everything else, including animal prints and florals. She has always insisted that I was not “in style” and certainly not trendy. Black is my wardrobe color choice with red as the secondary color. I have a pageboy, while she sports a spiky, trendy haircut. She wears blue nail polish (or whatever the style is today) and mine is always a shade of red.
So today she has offered the color choice of Granny Smith apple green for the ceiling in my family room. Really? I sat there and thought: I should hire someone to paint her den apple green and surprise her. Just go for it, color outside the lines, really do something daring, I thought. But I didn’t.
I think in my guest room I will have something with apple green in it as a tribute to my sister. Isn’t it funny how siblings from the same gene pool have opposite tastes? It has been a standing, lifelong debate about how dull I am and how trendy, stylish she is. I am good with it.
Tell me about you and your siblings!
