So, I’m rather anal about the paint colors in my house.

There are a couple of reasons for this. First, I usually know what color I’m going for when I decide to paint a room. Second, paint is expensive, so I don’t want to buy a non-refundable color. And third, it’s a lot of work to set up, paint and clean up. I don’t want to do it more than once because I changed my mind on the color.

So far in our house, we’ve painted our living room, stair hallway and upstairs hallway one color, and we’ve painted the kitchen another color. Both times, I purchased no less than three samples. Those paper swatches? Yeah, to me, they only narrow down the selections. But I think that it’s important to purchase the paint samples, as sometimes the paper swatches just aren’t accurate. Trust me on this. I know these things.

So, I take my samples, paint them on the walls in 2×2′ swatches, and then live with them for a week. I need to see what the colors look like during the day, and then also at night in artificial light. Anal and ridiculous? Yes, but I love the paint colors I’ve used so far, and I credit it with purchasing samples.

So, this is my deal with the bedroom. As if I didn’t learn my lesson, I picked up a paper sample at Home Depot of “Oatmeal.” For the bedroom, I knew I wanted a light, warm tan or off-white.

On a side note, I use Ralph Lauren paint, on recommendation from my mother-in-law. I think it’s important to use high quality paint. We have RL paint in the majority of our house at this point. It goes on well, and doesn’t need two coats. I also think the colors in cheaper paint look… well… cheap. We used Behr paint for the kitchen, and while it was nice paint, it definitely did not cover as well as RL paint. OK, end of tangent.

OK, so I thought the paper sample of Oatmeal was great. I bought a paint sample, but wasn’t even sure if I was going to put it on the walls. The paper sample looked perfect! See, I don’t even follow my own advice. Well, Neal told me to put the paint sample on the walls, just to make sure. Thank God he did. It was too dark and just didn’t look good in the room. A light color is rather important, because with the slanted walls, I think a dark color will really make the room look small. And I like warm colors, rather than cool colors.

So, I went out and purchased two other colors, Ivory Coast and Victoriana. In the picture below, from left to right, is Oatmeal, Ivory Coast and Victoriana.

Oatmeal, on the left, is too dark. Victoriana, on the right is too yellow/orange. Ivory Coast, in the middle, is JUST RIGHT!! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! Whew! Not sure how the color looks on your computer, but it is a really nice, warm…. ivory, haha.

So I’m happy now. Paint colors are set and we are good to go to paint this weekend! Whoo hoo!

And just a parting word – Buy paint samples and use them! Samples can run $5 per color, but you’ll save money using the right color the first time! Do not go by the paper samples alone. Trust me!

And remind me to follow my own advice next time I paint….