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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Third Time's The Charm?


I've lived in this house for almost two and a half years.

Wanna know how many times I've painted the living room?




That would be three.

Three times I've painted this thing. Two times I picked the wrong color.

And when I say wrong, I mean the exact opposite of what I had in mind.

It's like I have a gift for choosing the worst color ever.




When I moved in, the living room was fire engine red. Like, if you were on the street looking through the window, you might have thought that shady things were going on inside.

So, I painted it a color that I thought was a nice neutral beige. But it was an awful yellow caramel.

I hated it, but let it stay for a year out of pure laziness and anger.

Then last spring the dining room (which is adjacent) was painted a lovely green/gray color. I liked it so much that I took that color down a few notches and painted the living room what was supposed to be a light grey with a green base. 




Yeah. Not so much. It was mint green.


The photos are not doing it justice. You can kind of see how green it was when compared to the grey hallway. Now multiply that difference times a million.





This past weekend I decided to give it one more shot. This time I picked a light grey that actually came from a black base instead of a green. I wanted my new color to be as far away as possible from the yellow or green spectrum of the color wheel.

If colors could be enemies, I wanted my new color to be in a full on war with yellow and green.




Once I had my new grey paint, I started with the basic paint prep. 

See what I found? The awful caramel with hints of the atrocious red peaking out. Apparently I was too lazy last time to bother with taking off the outlet cover.

Seriously. How did TC live in that red room for five years?




When I got the trim on the walls, I started having minor heart attacks.




It was so dark. Too dark! I sent out SOS texts to my mom and sister.

"Ahhh! I've chosen the wrong color AGAIN! Send help."




But it got better as I painted and my heart attacks slowed down when I realized that it wasn't as dark as I originally thought.




In fact, it was looking much better. Hell, at this point anything was better than pale mint green. Except caramel. Or red.




Yes, it was no longer my own personal waffle cone of mint chocolate chip ice cream.




In fact, the living room was so grey that the "grey" dining room started taking on a green hue.




Can you see the outdated/needs-to-be-replaced green couch sticking out? That's not exactly helping my cause here...





Yes, much better.





See how before it was a green living room and a grey dining room?

Now it's a slightly green dining room and a grey living room.

The magic of paint is fabulous. Now, instead of hating the whole room, I only hate the furniture.

Oh, but just you wait. Come August there are going to be beautiful new couches. Right, TC???

Insert TC's voice: Yes, darling. Whatever you want. Of course we'll buy new couches if that's what makes you happy.

Excellent. That's what I like to hear.




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