What Kind of Pants Does Mario Wear?

In an effort to completely shirk my paper-writing responsibilities (or maybe only avoid them for an hour or two), I stopped at Big Orange on my way home last night to pick up some inky paint samples for the study-o. When you last saw the space, I had just finished building my own desk (and first piece of furniture ever) and was considering a few more redos in the room with a Craigslist chair and thrift store bookshelf. Sad looking, aren’t they?

But now that I’m fully realizing my new school workload (midterms are just a week away!), my desperate need to have a tidy, finished space is really getting to me. And as much as I could really use a nice chair to sit in, I would like it even more if I could sit in a nice chair while looking at sophisticated navy walls. At the very least, it couldn’t hurt to test out a few colors and give myself a better idea of what this room is really going to look like (especially when a paint color can set the tone for the whole room). So, off to the store I went.

I knew I wanted a denim-navy-inky-blue with just the right amount of gray, and by many accounts online (like here, here, and here), Benjamin Moore’s Hale Navy seemed like the perfect fit. But since lighting can make a huge difference in a paint color’s appearance, it’s always smartest to test the paint color in the actual space. Thankfully Big Orange keeps most competitor brands in their database at the ready, so grabbing a test pot was easy. Just to be sure I had enough for comparison, I also picked up a few more samples from Behr, Martha Stewart, and Glidden (called Starless Night, Wrought Iron, and Blue-Grey Slate respectively). Above them, I painted the BM Hale Navy test sample.

It’s a no-brainer (ignore the unfinished trim; that will get a coat of white before the paint goes on the wall). I really like the Starless Night color (the largest paint chip in the middle), but once the walls are saturated, I’m fairly certain it will be a little too vivid. And since I’m only planning on painting two of the walls navy (the entire room would be swallowed up if every wall was dark, so the other two will be Decorator’s White), the blue and gray in the Hale Navy sample looks balanced and clean. Here’s a shot into the hallway – those tan walls will eventually go away, but think dark floor, navy walls, and white trim… can you see where this is going?

Darn. Now that I’ve picked a color, this means that I really do have to get to writing that paper. Hopefully I’ll be able to tackle the paint this weekend, which will also give me enough time (I hope to see the sample in the daylight and reconfirm the decision). Unless, of course, I get another school assignment begging to be avoided… then it may be sooner.

What about you? Have you been procrastinating lately too? Did you do it by working on a home project, or did you do it by avoiding one?