Sick of looking at magnolia walls!!!!

[SparklyTinselTits]

I live in military housing with DH and DD. As per regulation, every room is wall to ceiling magnolia with beige/brown carpets. Our old house was exactly the same....as was the one before. And the one before that. In this house, we decorated DD's room before she was born, and I'm really proud of it! Now here comes the dilemma.
I am itching to decorate the living room. Looking at bland magnolia walls every day is starting to drive me mad. We are allowed to decorate, as long as it is put back to magnolia when we move out. And that's where the problem lies....do I spend a few days/weeks decorating and making it look lovely and homely, only for DH to come home and say "hey love, we're posted again"....or just leave it magnolia? I have a horrible thought that if I leave it, we will stay here for the next 10 years and be doomed to a life of mangolia, and if I paint it then a posting order will arrive within days
Come on people....lets have a vote.
Regulation magnolia boringness forever? Or make it our home??

Are you absolutely sure you have to put it back to magnolia? My mother decorated every quarter we were ever in (at least 15) and I don't remember her ever having to re-paint. It was quite a long time ago though. She even wallpapered in Northern Ireland as the walls were so awful. Might be worth double checking with the estate warden (or whatever they are called now).

I would've thought as long as you did it in "sensible" colours then it would be nicer than it started off with! Is every room magnolia now? When I lived in quarters, they always had a yellow kitchen and bathroom and hideous pink or blue bedrooms. Not to mention the pink and orange or khaki and lime green 3 piece suite...

I'm voting for painting, because I think you're dying to do it!

It won't take days or weeks to repaint one room. It will take one day if you can farm out DD, or you could do one coat one evening and the second another evening. The difficult bit is clearing the room and putting the furniture back. Use good quality paint. Consider one coat paint. I like Dulux as their normal emulsion can be recoated after a v short interval - about 2 hours IIRC.

KitKats28 yes we have to put it back...our housing is now dealt with by a civilian company who are really anal about March outs. For example, my friend failed her March out inspection because the paint was chipped on the bathroom door it's ridiculous.

KitKats28 unfortunately you do have to change the walls back to magnolia before you march out.

I'd decorate, although knowing my luck the following week I'd be painting magnolia over it.

It doesn't matter if you have to put it back. Go out right now, get a few tins of yellow or duck egg and grey and get painting. You'll have at least one cheerful wall by teatime.

Yes just decorate, do one wall for now!

God I remember march outs! They went over every millimetre with white gloves when I was little. I remember someone failing as there was a blade of grass on her lawnmower.

I'd definitely decorate then. Just use a light-ish colour so it's easy to go over again. Do they issue you with regulation magnolia to re-paint or will you have to buy it yourself?

Kitkats I cheat and use our disturbance allowance to pay a professional to come and do our March out clean would definitely fail if I did it myself!
We will have to buy it ourselves to go back to magnolia. I'm thinking of a nice duck egg blue...but then will that make the room look too cold??

I knew before opening this thread that you'd be a military family!

Do it. I can never be bothered but we've lived in 7 houses in as many years so never long enough anywhere to commit to it. But I HATE magnolia with a passion, particularly the institutional shiny silk magnolia so loved by the MOD. Urgh...

I got DH to pick up a Dulux colour brochure thingy when he popped to tescos....so I'm deciding on a colour scheme now DH has also agreed finally that we need a new sofa, so I'm going to do a whole Grand Designs job on my living room .....and then probably have to change it back to shite magnolia in a few months. But fuck it. I can't bear it any longer

Whoop whoop!

Whether duck egg looks cold I don't know. Just pick a colour you love and go for it. I have painted a lot of blue walls in my life, basically because blue makes me happy :)

In our current home we had to scrape magnolia woodchip off 95% of the walls (including bathrooms!) all I can say is the décor is much brighter than we would normally choose it seemed to have had a bizarre effect on both dh & I...

I have wonderful wood chip in my living room that has been there forever....you can tell it's been painted and then re-painted back to magnolia by everyone who has ever lived here it's grim. Maybe it won't bother me so much if it's got a nice colour on it....I can probably look past the lumpy bumpiness of it