I've been to the paint stores 4 times in the last week and it's not over yet. I'll begin with that and back up...(prepare for a long read)
So we've been living in our town home just a few days shy of a year. So glad to be back in Hudson, but tired of having all 5 of us cramped into two bedrooms (with Nathan in the walk-in closet) while we finish the basement. There's no play area, and I've got bins stacked 3 high in the kids' room along the walls. Even when things are picked up it doesn't really look or feel neat & tidy. (I'm not a fan of piles and clutter.) And it's getting to me. I want to 'seek first His kingdom'-- not the stuff of earth. But I do have such a desire to make our home feel like a home. To feel settled, and for things to have a place.
We're nearing the end, though. Wade has done an amazing job and the next step (my only step, really) is to paint, and then it's just carpet and trim! Sounds simple. We've done the paint thing many times before. In fact, I counted 12 rooms I've picked colors for and painted, over the span of 3 'houses' in our married life. We've done every color of the rainbow: reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, purples, and browns. I've liked most of them. But occasionally I've picked some doosies. (SP?) Like the crazy green in my bathroom. Lime Rickey turned into Bright Lime Yucky. (I even had professional help choosing that one!) Anyway, back to our basement. We've got two bedrooms (one will be the toy/TV room), a wide hallway area, and a stairwell. Got the girls' room painted a pretty blue and green. Done. Planned on painting everything else a warm and cheery, yet muted, apricot yellow. A color I had seen as a backdrop at a furniture store . Somehow I ended up with a muted version of curb yellow.
I'm stumped. I had gotten all the color swatches, tried them in different lights, on different walls. Even got the big 8x11 sample sizes to compare. So next I went to Sherwin Williams for expert help. I don't think the guy there knew much more than I do about picking colors. After an hour of agonizing, using their light box (simulates natural/artificial lights) and chasing my children out from under the paint cans and greasy paint sprayers, I left with a quart sample of a beautiful blue that the rep talked me into, and I went to Wal-Mart to get the lighter yellow he recommended. Wade hated the blue. And the yellow looks peach on the wall. Back to the drawing board. So now I'm thinking terracotta for the toy room, but I just don't know for everything else. I wanted to avoid the beiges and neutral greens this time around. I like color. I like unique, but not weird. And we're not going to be here forever, so it has to look OK for resale. I've actually lost sleep over stupid paint colors! I think I may have found a few shades I like, but it pains me to think of wasting even more time and money. Man!
13 comments:
That sounds so frustrating! I often think of the colors you had used in South Bend. They were so beautiful!! I'm horrible at picking colors myself so I'm afraid I'm not much help. My favorite color in our house right now is in the den and it's called "Dried grass". It's a pale, but not too pale green. But it's a grown kind of green too, not neon-y or bright. Good luck. Maybe post pics of the room and readers can make suggestions!
A friend of mine paints for a living and showed me how she does it when helping me pick colors and paint a few rooms in my house. Get one quart of the color you think you want and paint it onto about a 2 foot square section of the wall at eye level. Let it dry for about 20 minutes and check it. If it doesn't look quite right (and in our experience it always needed something) then put big dabs of it on a pallet or side of a stirring stick and blend in little bits of whatever color it could need. Browns will warm it up, or mixing just a tiny bit of a color you're matching it with with help the two to blend, etc.
For instance, we did my dining room in "blue and yellow". The yellow was a manilla that we brought in from another room that went from floor to about 20 inches from the ceiling. The country blue we picked for the top of the wall and the ceiling (yes the ceiling, I'd have never done it but just love it now) was just too contrasty so we added bits of the yellow to the blue on a stick and tried three different hues (obviously we didn't have enough for a large swatch but just smeared on a patch with our fingers and let it dry). One of them was perfect and we took that back to the store, had them do a color match and got our gallons of the "right" color.
With all of your paint and experience you probably have enough to work with and get a good shade without having to spend extra money. Good luck!
Oh Kara Jo! I love how much passion you have toward making a home for your family! I love you friend. Hang in there. You are so good at this. I know you are frustrated now, but I know you'll find just the perfect colors! I truly think you are very talented at finding the perfect shades, (as well as knowing which ones are NOT the perfect shades!)
Much love friend!
Thanks, ladies for the suggestions and encouragement!
keithslady, welcome--great to hear from you! Thank you for the paint mixing idea--that had NEVER occurred to me before as an option. Hmm...I'll let you know what I figure out!
I will help you if you want it.
Hey hon, I hear ya, I love the new colors but I do not like the process and from the sounds of it I shouldn't be asking you to help paint my new kitchen =)Just think of all the amazing lessons you are learning. God is good, HE teaches in color.
Farf
Oh man, we really need to paint...I've actually never done any before so it's really going to be frustrating! Add to that my pickiness about brand...has to be low or no-VOC of course. :) I think what is one the walls now is just primer. It's been like this since we bought the house 4 1/2 years ago...if you rub it too hard (like for removing crayon or marker of course) it seems to come off. Oops, time to paint. :)
pw, yes, I'll take you up on it...can you come over TOMORROW???
Farf, I'd still help you...I've had good luck with kitchens. :)
Danielle, check out keithslady's suggestion on finding the right color. Also, as long as the type of paint you want is available at a store that does color matching, you could still get any color you want and the no/low VOC wouldn't have to be an additional obstacle for you, I'm thinking. :)
Curb yellow is my favorite color.
I painted Timmy's room with images and Anna's room with slightly different shades of pink (in vertical stripes) and subtle images of castles/bees. Now I'll be re-painting Anna's room as an under-the-sea mermaid room.
Swampy
Swampy, you're amazing.
KJ,
When we first got married, I decided our guest room / office needed to be a bright, cheerful yellow.
Let's just say that if we had painted a royal blue stripe around the room, it would have been like jumping into a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.
Rich said he never needed to turn on the light in that room...
You Know, the "resale" importance is good to remember. You don't want to go too crazy. Some people will not buy a house if their furniture doesn't match the paint colors. You might be better off with "safe" colors like Tan, Kahki, Beige, ect. I know it doesn't sound like fun... but neither does no buyers. Some people just don't like to paint.......
Good Luck!
Post a Comment