There are many theories when it comes to selecting paint colors. Some utilize the color wheel - warm colors vs cool colors, coordinating with opposing colors. Others focus on fung shui and the psychology of colors - oranges and reds represent energy as blues and greens are calming. I instead follow my own color theory...GO WITH YOUR GUT!
I fully believe in having a plan - coordinating rooms, accessories, feel - but at the end of the day I select a color by what I am naturally drawn to. And even if I look through hundreds of color samples and think about it for weeks I almost always end up back with the color I first grabbed when I walked into the paint isle. And that is exactly what happened with our dinning room.
I set out to find a color that would "go" with our bright Grand Piano Room blue. (Not "match" but "go".) Although the rooms are not connected they are the first two rooms you see when you enter the house. They are alike in size and function (read - they are not used very much). And they frame the main living space which allows us to add a punch of color while keeping the kitchen and family room neutral. Therefore, I wanted them to have a similar feel - the cool, calming color of blue. And you want to know what is amazing, even though the blue in the Grand Piano Room is bright and very bold it is somehow calming. Gosh those experts are right!
So keeping this color in mind I went to my favorite ACE Hardware (shout out the Middleton Springs ACE!) I skipped to the paint section (what...you don't skip around the hardware store?) and was immediately drawn to a light blueish grey. But I gathered a number of options so I could take them home to my husband to discuss. We selected two colors out of the bunch, one being my initial choice, and I went back to ACE to pick up some samples. But they didn't have the handy little paint samples of the two colors I liked so I was forced to make an executive decision and we all know how that ended up. I of course went with my gut and picked the color I had liked from the beginning. I put my $5 off coupon to work and headed home with this...
The first coat looked pretty grey but with a second coat the blue seemed to come out more. It is always hard to capture paint color on this small scale, but I think it will look great once the job is done.
Speaking of that, now that the color has been chosen there are two matters still to address. Numero uno...is it time to also tackle the wall-o-mirrors in the dinning room or do we leave that for a later date. (I am terrified.)
And numero dos, who is going to paint for us? Anyone? Anyone? We have new neighbors moving in next door and they had painters over at their house today. I was SO tempted to run over there and ask how much they would charge to paint my the dinning room. But...I stopped myself. As a prideful DIYer I just wouldn't be able to look myself in the mirror if I wimped out on painting and my cheap self would never let me pull the trigger anyways. So the job is still available. Who is coming over the paint? I will provide the beer and pizza!
And for those of you following the $250 Challenge here is the breakdown on my month so far...
vase $16.99
flowers $21.89
metal sign $12.99
toy storage baskets $42
dinning room paint $22.14
TOTAL $116.01
