House update:
At last count, I had 14 sample cans of blue-gray paint for my living room. They are all either too blue, too gray, too dark, or too light. I finally decided to say screw gray-blue and use a nearly white neutral I had used when I painted my parents’ extra lake house. I will use blue in the kitchen and accessorize the living room with lots of color later.
Except after I spent four and half hours last night painting half the living room and doing all the trim, I decided I don’t like that either.
That sound you hear? That is me pounding my head on the fireplace.
I have decided I am going to just paint it the same effing cream that I like in the rest of the house and be done with it.
OMG. You need a pub night to drink your troubles away!
So will you leave the shelves and the mantle around the fire place unpainted?
I left the mantle unpainted but now it needs to be stained to match the floors. I painted the shelves and they look pretty good. I may still go back and paint the wall above the fire place a color, but I am going to wait until we pick out new furniture. Cream can stay through the summer.
I’m not-so-secretly glad you are leaving the mantle.
I think cream is a great option… I think that in the end it might be the best choice. I’m still excited to see the blue in the kitchen.
Why not mix your own color? Mix your too dark and the too light colors and see what you come up with! I did that and was much happier.
Picking paint colors stresses me out too (along with everyone else in my household). After the last round of painting our house, I’ve decided that Sherwin Williams “Creme” is perfect. Every house we ever own from here on out will be painted that color. PS – I like the idea of neutral walls and popping color with accessories and furniture. You can change the look of a room as often as you like with very little effort
I had a Sherwin Williams blue in my old house that I adored! I wish I had the can, I’d email you the color. I painted that almost 10 years ago, so can’t remember now but EVERYONE who walked in LOVED it.
I saw Techno Grey in one of my sister’s bathrooms and LOVED it – so I painted the 1/2 story of my house that color when I finished it…
My other sister saw it and LOVED it, so she used it in her living room. After months of searching for a color for her bedroom she ended up with Techno Grey there too.
I moved to my new house and painted my new bedroom and bathroom – you guessed it, Techno Grey! It’s a great color, nearly sage, but not green…completely calming. You might check it out again, at Sherwin Williams; however I now like the Home Depot paint more I still love that color and I’ve lived with it for 7 years:)
You are such a grown up. Last time I painted my choice was swayed by the name of the paint. It was called Late Favourite, which to me sounded like a horse you might bet on. (It was a pale sort of jade green colour.)
I am lauging with you, not at you. I promise. We moved in September and my husband thought I was crazy when I painted eight shades of green on our kitchen walls and 12 shades of tan in the family room. I spent a crazy amount of money on those little sample containers. Thankfully they have those little samples now though. When we moved eight years ago I had to buy quarts, which was much more expensive.
[...] looked dark and purplish as the sun went down. Apparently, I didn’t learn anything from the Living Room Blue-Gray Paint Debacle of 2010. Tomorrow, I go to buy more paint and try [...]