The Anti-Nester

Somewhere between moving into my last apartment and moving into Mike's house, I lost my urge to nest. I feel like I have no more design mojo, and that thought is depressing. In my last apartment I spent a good week putting everything in the perfect spot and creating a specific look. But now, I can't even figure out what look I'm going for. Aren't people my age (30) supposed to be nesting by now? Aren't they supposed to be innately interested in throw pillows and pot racks and paint colors?

Even though I feel like I need to do something to jazz up the house, I can't figure out what I want to do or what will look good. The first problem is paint colors. I don't feel a great need to paint anything, although the living room color has always bugged me a bit. The guys who owned the house before Mike painted it this sage green color and if there's a lot of light in the room, the color is really pretty. However, at night, the color is gray. I can't decide if I should just stick with the gray and brighten up the room with pillows and other accessories. Or if I (and by "I", I clearly mean "me and Mike") should change the color. Changing the color could be a real pain in the ass because the walls are plaster and textured and other people have told me that painting textured walls is tricky.

Then there is the issue of paint colors. Picking paint colors overwhelms me so much that when I even think about it, my mind shuts down and I have to take a nap. Just like a little baby. Should it be neutral? But is neutral any better than gray? Should it be a bright? Is red too much? Will I like a beachy marine color? Or is that too thematic? Once I start going to paint colors, I usually decide that the gray-green doesn't bother me that much.

The second big issue is hanging pictures. We have almost no pictures hung on the walls. The issue is that pesky plaster. Plaster walls are a bitch. You have to be careful about hanging anything on them because the plaster can crack and ruin your walls. Some say put crown molding up and hang it from wires attached to the molding, some say you can put the nails in the studs. Both are a crazy amount of work. First of all, most of our "studs" are also really close to electrical wiring. Second, our "studs" must be concrete or metal because when we attempted to drive a nail in one of the only studs not close to electrical wiring we could find the nail bent. We tried 5 different times and got 5 different bent nails. Third, studs aren't necessarily in the most even position on the walls.

You can see why all of these problems cause me to not want to nest. Does anyone know how to hang photos on plaster walls? Anyone else want to find for me the perfect living room paint color and then come over and paint it? Pretty please.