When we first saw our condo, we loved the layout and the light and many other aspects of it. However, we found a few areas for improvement, including the colors of the walls. The combo living/dining room was painted a dark orange-y red and forest green. One particularly wretched bedroom was pink (walls and carpet), and nearly everything else was brown, including the ceiling of my bathroom. (Who paints a bathroom ceiling brown?? Isn't a windowless bathroom cavelike enough?)
We painted rooms in order of wretchedness--the worst came first. First up (before we even moved in) was the living room first. That project took a gallon of primer, two gallons of paint, two weekends, several disagreements, and more blue tape than I'd care to remember. But every time we look at our Morning Sunshine walls, we are happy. I love the color.
The downstairs bathroom got a daring makeover--it went from brown to red. Benjamin Moore has a color called simply Red, and that's what we wanted. It's bold and beautiful and perfect.
The guest bedroom, aka pink nightmare, became a beautiful turquoise-y blue. It's beachy and fun and I feel like I'm on vacation every time I'm in the room. I don't really notice the pink carpet anymore.
Our bedroom went from a dull, blue-gray (I didn't think I disliked any shades of blue, but I disliked that bedroom color) to Antique Yellow--creamy and warm and light. Our bedroom is a sanctuary of warmth and happiness.
We've had nothing but success so far, but every time I paint, I worry about what I'll do if I don't like the color. Granted, our color-choosing process is pretty extensive (for example, we've had two paint chips hanging in our hallway for over a year as we have tried to decide between them), but mistakes happen. I knew that sooner or later, I would choose unwisely. And sure enough, I did.
Our kitchen was, naturally, brown. We were able to live with it these past (nearly) two years, but we never liked the color and always planned to change it. I think we put the project off because we were scared to paint above the cabinets. But two weeks ago, we decided that enough was enough, and it was time to say good-bye to the brown kitchen.
My original plan was to paint our kitchen an orange-y yellow (called Nacho Cheese), but orange would have clashed terribly with the tile backsplash and lino floor. Our only option was some sort of off-white color. We went to the local hardware store and picked out a few paint chips, none of which I was super excited about. It's hard to match someone else's color scheme, especially if you wouldn't have chosen it yourself.
We settled upon Butter Pecan, an off-white color that is tinted with a hint of brown. We used the leftover primer from our bedroom to cover the brown, and I was loving the results (the primer was tinted in the Antique Yellow color). Then we put on our first coat of Butter Pecan, and I began to get an unsettled feeling in my stomach. I didn't like the new color as much as the primer color. It was lighter and felt colder.
B (who has an uncanny ability to sense my moods) asked nonchalantly, "So...how do you like it?" I waited a few moments and then cried out, "I like the primer better!" He said he suspected as much. The only problem was that he liked the Butter Pecan color better. He thought it looked brighter and cleaner.
I tried to convince myself that Butter Pecan was ok. I reminded myself that I chose the color. I told myself to sleep on it and approach the situation in a calm and collected manner the next day. We had bought only a quart of paint and needed to put on another coat, but by this time it was Sunday afternoon and all of the hardware stores were closed, so a decision was going to have to wait until the next day anyway.
The next morning, I greeted my new kitchen with a grimace. "Oh, you, again," I thought. I still didn't like the Butter Pecan. I wanted my Antique Yellow back!
All that day, I went back and forth between Butter Pecan and Antique Yellow. I felt bad choosing a color, seeing that B liked it, and then changing my mind and going with a different color. In the end, though, I made the (admittedly, somewhat selfish) decision to get the Antique Yellow. It might not have B's preferred color, but it didn't incite anger in him the way that the Butter Pecan did with me, so I decided that it was the safer bet for both of us.
And our new kitchen is just beautiful.
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