Why I Want To Change The Pantry Tile (And How I Found My Decorating Color Palette)

Recently, I wrote a post about the possibility of using the rest of the wall mural from the entryway in the breakfast room. Don’t worry. I’ve decided against that. But in that post, I casually mentioned that I was considering removing the backsplash tiles in the walk-in pantry.

I got a few comments from some people who were shocked that I would consider removing these tiles. After all, I very painstakingly made these tiles myself out of resin and alcohol inks. It was a laborious process (but a very fun one!), so I can understand that the idea of me wanting to remove them would come as a surprise. I do love these tiles, and I’ve loved being able to tell people, “I made these tiles!” as I show them around our home. It’s always fun to see people’s reactions.

But I still know that at some point in the future (perhaps next year, or maybe even towards the end of this year), I’ll be removing them. And I know that as soon as I start working on our breakfast room, which is on my home goals list for this year, I’ll be even more anxious to remove them. Let me explain why.

We bought this house in August 2013. The first room that I remodeled, tearing it down to the studs and rebuilding it, was the kitchen. I finished this room in 2014. I originally painted the cabinets green (Sherwin Williams Derbyshire). And I did so even though I knew at the time that green is not my color, but I was trying to step outside of my comfort zone and try something new.

The next room I remodeled was the hallway bathroom. This was another down-to-the-studs remodel, and I finished it in July of 2015. In this room, I went back to my favorite color (teal). I really loved this room, but this first iteration seems very safe to me. While I was very proud of this remodel, and it was a massive improvement over the original bathroom, I was still struggling to find the look (or more specifically, the colors) that really spoke to me. I knew that teal was my favorite color, but beyond that, finding those other colors that work with my favorite color in a way that really spoke to me was still an ongoing process, and it was a process that I’d struggle with for several years to come.

I’m skipping over a lot, but one of the next things I finished was the wall in our front living room that I refer to as the entryway wall, which I finished in June 2016. By this time, I was starting to realize that my rooms were missing warm colors. As long as I was sticking to the teals and greens, I was ending up with rooms that felt very safe and nice, but I was starting to realize they lacked that “wow” factor. So I started to play around with adding small doses of warm colors starting with these coral dining chairs. I believe that this was during my wayward year when I foolishly tried to turn our front room into a dining room. That whole experiment was a disaster, but I did love this hand drawn bird and branch design that I did on this wall.

And then, in May of 2017, I finished the breakfast room. Once again, I played it safe with teals and greens, and this time, I tried to add in some dark purple. And once again, I ended up with a room that was nice, but once again, it lacked that “wow” factor. Everything felt very safe.

And around that same time, in June 2017, I also finished repainting my kitchen cabinets a medium teal color. By that time. I had at least learned my first big lesson. It’s much more important to fill my home with colors that I absolutely love rather than to try to force myself to step outside of my comfort zone. You shouldn’t have to force yourself to like anything in your home. Your home should be a reflection of things that you already naturally love and that reflect who you are. And teal has been my color for about two decades now. Once I repainted my kitchen cabinets from green to teal, our house started to feel more like home rather than a testing laboratory for decorating ideas.

But even then, I was still struggling to find the rest of my colors. Teal is great. Teal is my favorite color, and I love all shades of teal, from medium to dark and everything in between. But I knew I couldn’t decorate an entire house with various shades of teal and be happy with it, even if it is my favorite color. So I was still limping along and trying to figure it out.

Again, I’m skipping over some steps. But I eventually went back to the entryway wall and redid it…again. By this time, I had moved past my ridiculous idea of trying to turn our front room into a dining room, and had returned to sanity, realizing that that room needed to be a living room. So I started with the entryway wall. And while I was very secure in my decision to paint the wall teal, you can see that I was still trying to find the rest of my colors. I added some green. I added some purple. Still no “wow” factor.

But I think that this wall is what planted the idea of pink and coral in mind, even if I didn’t consciously realize it at the time. I remember finding those bird prints, and as I was deciding the order in which to hang them, I made a very conscious decision that the pinkish red bird needed to be top and center. There was something about that pinkish red color with the teal that really spoke to me. I still had no idea at the time just how much that one small decision would influence all of my decorating decisions in the future.

It still didn’t click in my conscious mind that the “wow” factor that my rooms were missing was pink and coral, so I went about my business. And the next big project I did was the walk-in pantry. And as I built that room, decided on colors (teal was the obvious color for the cabinets), and made the tiles for the backsplash, I was still doing teals, greens, and purples. After all, those were the perfect fit for the perfectly fine breakfast room that I had finished just a couple of years earlier. And I finished the pantry in January of 2019. It was a perfectly nice pantry to go along with my perfectly nice breakfast room, but both lacking any sort of life and vibrancy.

And then came the decision that started to make things click for me. I gave the hallway bathroom a colorful makeover, and I painted the vanity a warm color and put up a shower curtain that had teal plus some warm colors — pink, coral, orange. And finally, I had a room that felt like it had some life and vibrancy to it. And that’s when it all clicked to me. Yes, teal is my color. But it’s the addition of those warm colors that brings it to life.

I was still trying to work it all out, and I spent some time working on my studio (the first iteration of the back entry, which was green, black, and white) and then the guest bedroom (which we used as our main bedroom for a while). But it was while working on the next two rooms when I felt like I finally found my footing.

In 2021, I worked to finish the music room and the living room. And that’s when everything finally came together and the magic happened. I finally realized that the colors I had been missing all along — my colors — were those in the pink family. And once I finally let myself use pinks, I finally felt like I found my style and my color palette. The addition of pink did something in my mind that no other warm color could do.

So from 2013 to 2021, I struggled along. Seven-and-a-half years. But now, I know my style. I know my colors. And I feel very confident in my colors. I know they’re not everyone’s cup of tea, but they’re just right for me. These are the colors that make me feel comfortable and at home. Teal is my color. It has been for 20 years now. But pink is my color, too. And I love how the two of them work together. The teal is a safe, dark, grounding color. The pink adds life and vibrancy.

If only I had learned what my colors are before I remodeled the pantry and made those tiles, maybe I would have added pink. And maybe now I wouldn’t be considering redoing the backsplash in there. But that’s often how life goes, right? I had fun making those tiles, and I’ve loved that pantry for the years it has looked like it does now. But when I finally get a chance to redo our breakfast room, I want to have the complete freedom to do what I want to do to give the pantry a little refresh as well, and I don’t want to be constrained by those tiles. Now that I know my colors, I want to be able to envision both the dining room and the pantry in those colors.

And who knows? I may even decide that the pantry needs to look more like this…

Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.