Colour Me Happy!

I would love to say that I have a series of 'recaps' lined up about purchasing a home for the first time, moving into said home and then decorating/arranging said home.....but I'm too frazzled for that!! That last few weeks have been like a roller coaster of emotions. Stressed, happy, tired, angry, frazzled, back to stressed. Lucky for me, the BF has been in town to freak out with me. :)

The funny thing is that the whole 'you're purchasing a condo' notion didn't quite hit me until I had to pick paint colours. Sounds ridiculous right? Well, in the past, I didn't choose to paint my rental places. I just accepted the neutral wall tones and adopted the notion that I wasn't going to spend too much money on improving someone else's place (yes, I'm frugal). So this was my first foray into paint samples and deciding how to colour my place happy! Exciting right? Totally. Except that it took me FOREVER to pick the colours. In my mind, whatever colours I chose were THE colours to live on my walls. PERMANENTLY (yes, I'm melodramatic). This is when I realized.......I was about to become a homeowner.....a homeowner picking out paint colours.

Can we discuss how there are 50,000 shades of white?!! How is one suppose to pick a shade of white when they're all so similar!!

Case in Point:

via Benajmin Moore

As soon as I noticed the infinite number of shades of white, I decided that it would be best to choose the other colours of my place first, that is, colours with hues.

The BF and I decided to paint the living room, which has a 16 ft ceiling, red. (Picture a two story loft with the bedroom on the second floor looking out onto the level below). I wanted a deep rich red while the BF was leaning to something more subtle, more burnt. We ended settling on 'Louisiana Hot Sauce' (second sample from the top).

via Benajmin Moore

Very inviting non? We painted the 16 ft wall and the adjacent walls to it red.

The next paint to choose was the colour for the bathrooms. We decided to give both bathrooms the same colour scheme - a warm, sage-like green for the walls with brown accents (towels, bath mats etc). In fact, we (well, I) was inspired by this shower curtain I saw at Target on my last trip to the OC. I actually made the BF go buy it a few weeks later.

Voilà Atmospheric.

Back to the white. So after presenting the BF with numerous options (and eventually they all blended into one another), we settled on 'Flurry' which is "creamy, warm, with a touch of green" (according to this Chatelaine article titled "The Right White"). Lucky for me, it complemented the 'Louisiana Hot Sauce' quite well. I am so proud of my 'white' decision that every once in awhile, I will turn to the BF and say, "Look how great my white turned out." (Yes, I'm a dork).


Did we paint ourselves, you ask? Hell no! A lot of people ask why I didn't (maybe because I'm frugal) decided to take on the DIY task. My friends, I know where my limited abilities lie, and they definitely do not lie in home improvement. I can't even imagine painting a 16 ft ceiling three times over. We hired a contractor who did a splendid job. Sure, it cost a lot more than doing it ourselves but I'd gladly pay for my sanity, the BF's sanity and the hours we'd never get back!!

Have any 'Colour Me Happy' stories to share?

p.s. I found the Benjamin Moore site quite helpful. The BF and I were able to look at colours while he was in LA and I was in Toronto. Note that some monitors are not calibrated properly so the colours you see on the screen may not be how they look in real life. Unless you know your monitor is calibrated properly (the BF says Photoshop has a calibration tool), do pick up real samples to confirm your choices. Or don't take it too personally when you send an online swatch to someone and they express their disgust. ;)