The blue paint saga.

So before we moved into this house, I talked about my obsession with aqua and wanting to paint my kitchen some shade of blue. But first I decided to try blue out in a room that I don't live in, just to see how it went. So I painted one of the guest bedrooms. I like that I can see it from my room everyday, but I don't actually live in it.........

Even though it was over two months ago, I have to share the story of how this room finally got painted. It was a disaster. Like, something from a movie disaster. I brought it upon myself.

It went like this:

My plan was to research and choose my perfect shade of blue without looking at swatches and then go into the store and have it mixed so as not to confuse myself with the 500 varying shades of blue. I have chosen many wrong paint shades from looking at swatches. I loved Quietude and Rainwashed, two blue shades by Sherwin Williams, so when I got paint mixed for the living room, I picked up the color swatch with those two colors on it. Big mistake. The swatch wasn't blue at all. It was a greenish grey, not at all what I was looking for.

So I decided Glass Slipper by Benjamin Moore was The One. I bought a sample and slapped some around the room and waited a few days. Too grey. I was afraid it would be a downer during the 9 month winters. So I painted Skylar's ceiling with it instead. Of course, a sample can wasn't enough, so I had to go buy a whole gallon to finish the job........

Then I decided I was playing it too safe---this was my chance to go bold with aqua, so I went back to the store and picked up a gallon of Benjamin Moore Bird's Egg Blue. After painting half a wall I was nauseated. It looked like the Easter Bunny threw up. So I used it to paint Skylar's bed and the top of her little table instead....

Then I decided to mix my own perfect shade. Into a 2 gallon bucket I poured 3/4 of a gallon of the Bird's Egg Blue, half a gallon of white, and 3/4 of a gallon of the leftover Glass Slipper. I started painting. It was a toned down aqua. I didn't love it (perfectionist much?) but it was all getting a little ridiculous at this point, so I kept going. I got one wall finished and then it happened......

I knocked over the bucket and I didn't notice right away. By the time I did there was a massive puddle that couldn't be contained by the drop cloth. Paint everywhere. All over the wood floors. I screamed. I gathered up my very small drop cloth and ran to the bathroom, pouring blue paint all the way. It was a nightmare of gigantic proportions. Paint was literally all over the floor of the guest room, down the hall, all over the tile in the bathroom....everywhere.

Micah came up to see what happened. He had a heart attack. I revived him. He tried to run away. I made him help. He was not happy. There may have been some words exchanged. We started cleaning it up. It took hours. In fact, it was close to midnight by the time we finished. There is still blue paint in the crevices of the floor.

I had attempted to paint the room 3 times at this point. I couldn't match the color to finish the job (not that I wanted to) so I had to start over. Company was coming to stay in the room in a few days.

Kristy and Andy came and I put them in the other room. I went back and got a gallon of Quietude, my original choice. I decided it was too dark and mixed it half and half with Navajo White (I know, I know, I'm a freak). They helped me paint and we knocked it out in no time, two days before Micah's parents came to stay in the room.

And you know what? I LOVE the color. Should have gone with it in the first place.

I went with a pale green in the other room. Much safer. Except that it makes the trim look yellow, and I cannot tell you how much that bothers me every time I look at it. But if I paint the trim, then I have to paint the base boards, and door frames, and doors........

My painting arm was a little tuckered out after painting 4 rooms, 1 ceiling, and several pieces of furniture in 10 days. I haven't done anything since. So the kitchen isn't blue yet, and I'm not sure it's ever going to be. End of story.