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I thought because I was a “crafter” that DIY-ing was in my blood. Unfortunately, I do not seem to be as successful with decor as I am with smaller crafting/scrapbooking/painting projects. I seem to struggle with successfully picking the right paint color the first time, thus my very first piece of remodeling advice is this:
ALWAYS TEST THE PAINT COLOR.
I use that in CAPS to emphasize just how bad I am at following my own advice. I have twice picked a bad paint color, thus leading to two cans of unusable paint. I’m sure at some point I will find a use for too-gold tan or too-purple gray, but for now they sit in my garage as lonely rejects — unless of course I keep choosing wrong colors, which I will then have an Island of Misfit Toys Paint situation in my garage. What shocks me is how different the color looks on the pretty paint swatch versus how it looks on my crappy walls. I spend a week falling in love with a particular color, imagining it in every light, taping it up everywhere (which is what every design advice magazine will tell you), and then finally buying the paint. I gleefully take my new purchase home, open the can (I LOVE the paint key tool – so cute), dip my brush into the paint… and then stare in horror as the pretty paint turns purple/yellow/green/awful the moment it hits my walls.
No more. Thankfully, the folks at Lowe’s, Home Depot, True Value, etc. got smart to DIY failures like me (so far – I don’t plan to stay that way forever!) and created small 2 and 4 oz. paint samples. What’s really neat is that the Glidden samples at Home Depot are already pre-mixed, but Behr and paints from Lowe’s need to be mixed in the same fashion as larger versions. This still means I have several paint samples that never get used, but I can much easier find a use for a 2-oz. paint that I’m not 100% about than a whole GALLON that will take forever to get rid of. I have a pretty clever idea for paint sample use in the future, which I will show in a later post when it’s complete.
The reason all of my previous painting failures comes to mind today is because I plan to begin tackling our primary bedroom this evening after work. So far, I have decided on a paint color, but given the current state of the deeply saturated blue on the walls, I’m not sure how the paint color will truly turn out once I can have a more neutral canvas to compare. Thus, I went to Home Depot and got 1 gallon of KILZ primer tinted to the intended paint color. I’m less afraid of taking a chance on picking the wrong hue (too green? too pink?) knowing that it doesn’t have to match exactly to what I had in mind since the primer will be covered anyway.
Everything against the blue walls appears too light and it’s hard to see underlying hues when taping to the wall, so I imagine what I’ve chosen may need some tweaking after the primer is done. I want to set a clean, relaxing mood in the primary bedroom, so I am looking forward to getting rid of the old color and getting some new light into the room. It will likely take me several days to get the painting done, so when I’m finished, I’ll re-post about the primary bedroom. Until then, I’ll have additional updates from other parts of the house (there’s always something else going on!). Later!
