Beauti-Tone recently reached out to me so see if I would be up for a fun little challenge: They would provide me with some paint in their 2017 colour of the year and I got to come up with something fun to do with it! I know, my job is the best, isn’t it? 🙂
The 2017 colour of the year is called “You Look Mauve-lous”. It’s a color that is really rooted in the mauve family but with a nice, calm, greyed-down quality that really appeals to me. We thought it would be fun to try to use this colour in something Christmas-inspired at this time of year, just to be a little unique, and also because I just can’t stop thinking about Christmas! 🙂
We originally had a different idea for what project we wanted to do, but once we actually picked up the paint and tested it out, my plans changed completely! I was testing the paint on a piece of wood in the kitchen, and I was really surprised when I saw how great the You Look Mauve-lous looked against our light grey cabinets and medium grey walls. Actually, the piece of wood was sitting on the kitchen table and it even looked pretty great against that warm wood tone, which was surprising! This is why I love greys and greyed-down colors in general. They really do play nicely with all kinds of different other colours and decor styles.
I decided to make the You Look Mauve-lous a focal point in the room by creating this long trough-style box to run down the length of our kitchen table. I’ve always wanted an excuse to make one of those, so this was the perfect opportunity! 🙂
Like I said, we had different plans for how to use this colour originally, but as soon as I got this idea, we hopped in the car and ran to Home Hardware for new supplies! We literally traveled there and back, cut the wood for this project, and assembled it in less than an hour! Bam!
This is such a great project, because it really makes such a big impact in a space for very little money. We actually just bought a really basic piece of 1-by-8 rough pine, which cost around $6, and made the whole 4 foot long box out of it! We kept the construction really simple, but doubled-up on the pieces on the end for extra strength.
You can see that one piece rests on the ends of the two longer pieces of wood, and one piece fits just between the two. It gives the whole thing a nice look and gives it a little extra strength too.
Painting the box in You Look Mauve-lous really transformed it. We used exterior paint so we can easily use this for outdoor decor on our deck as well if we feel like it and it really took almost no time at all. The paint went on super smoothly and the first coat covered the box almost completely, even with all the roughness of the rustic-looking wood.
You can see I had a little helper for the painting process. 🙂 Things got a little bit messy, but not really too bad because the Beauti-Tone paint had a nice consistency to it and wasn’t too drippy like some paints can be.
It’s kind of unexpected to paint something so rustic with such a delicate color, but this color really lends itself to being applied almost anywhere!
It’s so funny because I knew this next shot would make Chris cringe. He hates imperfections like this, and sure enough he looked over my shoulder as I was editing this photo and said something to the effect of “Ugh!” Of course, this really rough little corner is one of my favorite parts of the project!
I could also see this color used in a lot of other ways during the holidays. You could coat the insides of clear plastic balls to hang on a tree for a really unique statement, use it to stamp a phrase on a wooden sign or a length of ribbon, or even design your own wrapping paper with this color. You can be sure that no one else will have Christmas decor quite like yours!
Christmas is such a fun time for trying out new things with your decor. It’s only temporary and you often will have a lot of visitors at this time of year, so interesting decor is a great conversation starter!
Would you ever use You Look Mauve-lous to inspire your Christmas decor? Where else would you like to use this colour?
For more great paint ideas and to see more of the 2017 Colour of the Year follow @home_hardware and #Beauti-Tone in social media.
I was compensated for my time in completing this blog post, however all opinions, thoughts, and ideas about the 2017 Colour of the Year and this product are my own as always!
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.