When at first you don't succeed, paint over it as fast as you can.
Donnie was out of town when I decided to start work on the boys room. And when Donnie's mom asked if she could have 3/4 of the kids overnight, I knew it was time to paint. Like a good painter, I brought the swatches home and set them up in the room to see what they looked like throughout the day.
After that I bought what I thought was a light mossy green and painted a swatch on the wall. It didn't look green at all.
I should have stopped there, but I thought that maybe the old ugly brown was throwing off the color, and that the green would show up when the brown was gone. So I painted a wall. Hmm...still looks yellow. But I painted another wall. And half of the third. That's when I finally took off my grass-colored goggles and admitted that I had picked the wrong color. Crap.
This is what the wall looked like when the kids got home. They were nice and told me they liked it, but every time I walked into the room, the color made me queasy and gave me a headache. That's not exactly the mood I was going for...
Making a mistake like this is such a morale killer. After you work so hard, just to realize that it's all wrong, well the motivation to get it fixed does not come easy. I pictured myself stalling to repaint, and then letting the whole room redo get away from me, just to avoid repainting. So I decided that it had to be done, like now. Since I had wasted my kid-free day, I packed them all up in 100-degree heat and went to Home Depot. I took my curtain fabric so I could find a color close to one of the trees in the print.
And no wonder I had picked a wrong color. It didn't exist! Who knew it was so hard to find a coordinating green? I went to the counter and had the guy color match it to the green in the fabric.
But when he mixed it up, it still looked pretty yellow, so I had him add just a smidge more of the blue. I couldn't have it turning gold on me again. When we got back home, I got to work and had all three walls painted by noon the next day.
Side note: If you do not have sons, or have never painted your son's room, let me tell you--it is an eye-opener. When I moved the bunk beds away from the wall, there was a stripe of grime on the wall between the railing and the mattress. What has he doing up here? Rubbing his feet along the wall to help himself get to sleep? I am relieved to say that I did not find a booger wall--although I'm sure some of you out there have. Honestly, whether I like the paint color or not, I feel like I should be repainting his room on a 6-month rotation! At least this time I went for an eggshell finish, so it will be easier to wipe down that the flat brown that was in there before. Eesh.
Ahh, now that's green! Looking back through the Behr swatches, if you want a color similar to this one, Asparagus is very close.
After the walls were painted, I played with furniture arrangement a little bit, and decided I liked the bed against the back wall. I think putting a tall piece of furniture next to the door makes the whole room seem smaller as you enter it.
So, now that three walls are painted (and repainted) what about that fourth wall? That, my friends, will have to wait until next time. Check out the inspiration board for a hint.
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The boys room "before" photos are on this post. And be sure to "like" my facebook fan page for sneak peeks at what's coming up next.
