Being a semi-shy person growing up, I always tried to avoid making dramatic entrances and would rather scope out the situation first and kinda sneak in. Much to my dismay, as an adult I have not been so successful. My dramatic entrances involve these situtations: “OMG-shit I am late! again!”, or the embarrassing “sorry coffee patrons I have to pee really bad so I am going to drag my kid and his meltdown all the way through the store to the bathroom”, or the dreaded  late walk of shame up the long stairs into the lecture room, during a test, whilst dropping and shattering my phone into a million pieces. Oh the drama! If anyone has a portable hole I can crawl in as necessary I will take it!

So, as part of my midlife crisis I decided to embrace my inevitable attention getting drama and apply it to my surroundings. I recently bought a new house and I wanted to spruce up the boring entryway. It needed some, “drama” so to speak. Hello dramatic entrances! (without the added mortification). Adding bright wall color to an otherwise dull entryway was really daunting. I usually go for muted and neutral colors for rooms. My inspiration was to do something no one would expect of me. There were all these wonderful fun color choices, but what is more dramatic than red? I chose a dark terra cotta red to compliment the room next to it which is painted a light olive green color. If remodeling is out of the question, painting is the easiest, quickest way to make dull space feel new. Pick a weekend day, crank the music, put on some old sweats, kick the kids and the hubby out of the house and go for it!

Spills happen. After chasing my cat who stepped in red paint around the house and in the process knocking over the paint tray I soon found out I am a really messy painter. Tip: getting red paint off of white trim is easy with a scrub brush and some Simple Green. Spray the areas you are not cleaning right away with a water bottle to keep the paint from drying. And if you step in the paint take off those shoes first! I will spare you the photos of my shoes which look too much like CSI evidence.