To Paint Or Not To Paint

That is the question! Or at least it's been the question on my mind since the day Chloe and I signed the lease for our apartment. The deal is the landlords will let us paint as long as we paint it back to their standard off white by the time we move out. That's a year from now. So basically, if we decide to paint, we will have to repaint it right before graduation. I have heard that pre-graduation time in college is crazy busy with finals and making various graduation arrangements. So, back to the question. To paint or not to paint? Call me crazy, but I decided that I want to paint! I understand that it might take a little bit of time and moolah to paint it back, but I'm okay with that if I can spend a year enjoying some lovely painted walls.

Remember, I have spent five years living in dorms (two of those were spent at my art high school boarding school). I have had enough of that boring off white wall color. I finally have the freedom to paint and put nail holes in the walls! And that's exactly what I am going to do! But don't worry. I'm not going overboard. I am going to paint my room for sure, but some of the other rooms are probably going to stay the way they are. The off white color actually looks good in the living room and studio.

The decision to paint my room was actually pretty easy. Trying to decide on a paint color was not so much. I made it a little easier on myself by deciding right off the bat to paint it a brown hue. However, I went into several different hardware stores and was shocked by how many different shades of brown there were. Some of the more putty/pinky brown colors were knocked out of the running right away because I personally think that color is disgusting. To narrow down the rest of my brown choices, I compared the paint chips to my sample fabric. The green in my fabric is the same shade as my bedding, so that made it easier to find the perfect match for my bedding, as well. I found a few colors that were okay, but they weren't the rich, warm, mocha brown that I desired.

However, one day I decided to go to Lowe's. I immediately found four Valspar color swatches that I really liked. I got four little sample pots made up so I could try them out on my walls at the apartment. It's always a good idea to try a sample of the paint before you make the commitment. Sometimes the color can change drastically when you bring it into new lighting.

As soon as I made it back to my apartment, I slapped some sample paint up on different sections of the walls. I held up my fabric swatches to each different paint color.

Two of the colors were eliminated right away (the one of the far left and the one second to the far right). The one on the left (Lyndhurst Mushroom) was too much like it's name; it looked like a mushroom. The one second to the right (Jekyll Club Cherokee Tan) ended up looking too blue in my room's lighting. The one to the far right (Sandalwood) was okay, but it didn't take my breath away like the one second to the left (Winter Delta). It really was the exact rich, mocha color that I had been dreaming about.

Here is another section (above) of wall that I painted with Valspar's Winter Delta. I painted a sample of the color in several different places in the room so that I could see the color in different lighting situations. I also taped up my beloved fabric swatch (below) next to the color to make sure it all worked together.

I also gathered up a little pile of some of the key colored accessories in my room and placed them next to an area that was painted with my sample paint. I think the color is the perfect backdrop for my colors and patterns!

So, to sum things up a bit, I have decided to paint my bedroom and I have chosen a beautiful warm paint color. I'm anxious to get started and plan to update soon with "after" pictures. Since the color is a lot darker, I can imagine the "before" and "after" difference will be pretty drastic. I can hardly wait!