Real Paint Begins: Flirting with Buyer’s Remorse

My dad came down and helped me bang out some painting yesterday and today. We did the bathroom, all 4 closets, and the ceilings in the upstairs hall and back bedroom.

Both colors I got in the back bedroom were MUCH darker than I was expecting.

I don’t know if that photo shows the colors. But when the first coat went on the ceiling, I said eep! It’s so dark! Maybe we’ll go a tinge lighter on the second coat. And then I used up all the paint on the closets. But then it dried and my dad and I decided that it actually looked kinda good. And then I kept it and bought a second gallon of the same stony grey for the ceiling. And once again used it up on the closets. The room is darker than I expected, but the lighting should be good so I’m calling that fine.

But then I wondered how the brighter white trim would look against everything else. So I brought up the radiator and pulled back the drop cloths so we can pretend.

Yep, I still think it’s fine!

So in the bathroom I flirted with buyer’s remorse but ended up sticking with the colors I picked. That may not be so in the back bedroom. The room gets the best light in the house in the mornings. The front windows will get great light in the afternoons once I’m able to remove the awnings. But that might be a while. But anyways, I wanted a color that would glow in the sun. And since it’s just a bedroom, I figured it could be a bit more vivid than the rest of the house. And I guess I let my longing for spring to get the better of me. So here’s what I bought.

Now that I have a couple inches on every corner, or the size of about a thousand swatches, I have to wonder what I was thinking. My dad said called it basement paint. He may have a point. This might be cheery on pegboard in a dingy unfinished room that gets little natural light. But here’s what I’m thinking of doing. I could save it for random uses like that, but I’m too cheap to let a gallon of premium paint go to waste. Also, I’m not sure if a single gallon will finish the room. So I’m thinking of rolling it on for the first coat and then deciding for sure. But I’ll get a (somewhat) similar color for the second coat, and it should have no problem covering.

Remember, the very well made braided rugs I got from my grandmother and the poorly made but serviceable navy blue comforter I have from my dorm room may temper it and maybe make the Easter grass green walls actually look good.

Or I can migrate to something more subdued and sagey or a Tiffany blue for the second coat. I do want the room to glow in the sun, remember.

The one color I never had qualms about was the ceiling. I thought the house looked too cold with the white primer, but learned my lesson from the bathroom and went to something that was barely not white. And I ended up Westhighland white, which is warm but still very close to a pure white. I’m thinking this might be the color for the kitchen and hallway walls, too.