Paint can set the tone for your day…

I was losing hair thinking about that horrid Army looking color combo colors in my kitchen.  I couldn’t imagine living with that.  I am Navy not Army after all.  I kept telling myself “oh it’s not really camouflage…besides the only time you will go in the kitchen is to pass thru it”   But all this hard work to not like the results seems kind of self sacrificial to me.  I tossed and turned last night thinking about this because it’s now or never.  If I paint later I am bound to mess up some stuff.  One thing I am celebrating since I turned 50 is if there is something I do not like, something that makes me feel uneasy, and/or makes me question my decision…I do not have to put up or live with it I can scrap it and move on to something else.   So if I don’t like the paint, repaint and have a nice day.  It’s a beautiful thing y’all!!

This morning when I got to work I was immediately annoyed by this salvaged white board someone (the boss) put in my office because there was nowhere else to put it.  What could I say?  Not a darn thing.  It’s a monstrosity and its been in my office for well over a year now and every morning I was fussing about it…but only in my head.  The thing is 7′ wide!!  This morning I couldn’t take it any longer and fussed about it out loud and bam a co-worker and I found a place to tuck it out-of-the-way.  Wow, it was that easy?  Then someone came in with a problem and it got solved.  So I started this day off feeling like there was nothing that couldn’t be solved.  I was still thinking about my paint and I knew the answer would come to me some how.

Later on  I was in the attorney’s office preparing for a case I have to testify in  and while she was talking all I was hearing was whomp whomp whomp and every once in a while I interjected the conversation with something intelligible but my mind was really on the new color they painted the walls.  It was beautiful and I was mesmerized.  Finally I couldn’t take it anymore and I asked the attorney about the color.  She said it was Sherwin Williams “Blonde” and she said she had it in three of her rooms at home also. Ohhhh this is more like the color I was wanting.  A bright but soft and warm yellow.  Now that I think about it…I have no idea how those other colors got in my cart at Lowes and subsequently on my walls but they have to go.  I did see where I wrote in my blog that I liked the colors so it must have been me who purchased them.  I think this is one of those instances where I have to question if I have multiple personalities or not cause I don’t see how I even thought that color scheme would fly.

Moving forward, my dilemma is now do I change my whole color scheme or do I just change one color or do I scrap everything and start over?  I went online to have a look at that color and see if it was the same so I could get Lowes to color match it.  I looked at it and noooo it did not look the same on the computer at all.  Let down… Then somehow I wound up on Valspar’s website and I saw the solution to the problem!!

VALSPAR LOVE YOUR COLOR GUARANTEE:

At Valspar, we believe the right color is powerful. So if you don’t love the color you buy, buy a new color of Valspar Signature Colors paint at Lowe’s. Don’t return the color you did not like to the store. Be sure to keep receipts for both colors.Take a photo of your wall showing both colors then complete and print your rebate request form to apply for a rebate on the purchase price of the original color.  Send in the completed rebate request form, photo, and original receipts.

Now when I read this I had tunnel vision so this is what my mind processed:

At Valspar, we believe the right color is powerful. If you don’t love the color you bought pick  a new one and we will reimburse you.  You don’t have to fight with Lowe’s to convert your paint to “oops paint”… just send  us the receipt for the old and the new cans and we’ll send you a check.  It’s that easy!  .

And it wasn’t until I put the first coat on the wall and waiting for it to dry and working on my post and copying and pasting from Valspar’s website that I noticed it said YOU HAVE TO TAKE A PHOTO SHOWING BOTH COLORS IN ONE PHOTO.  THE OLD AND THE NEW…LIKE THIS:

What???  Are you frigging kidding me?  You wait until I put the coat of paint on the wall and then you tell me the rules?  Oh wait, that’s my bad isn’t it?  Dang…Do  you think they will take this photo?  It shows both colors…

I also just noticed that the paint has to be from the Signature line.  Daggoneit…the Signature line is the cheaper line but I HAD to get my color in the more expensive paint today. Back in the day you could take any color and color match it and have it mixed in any line of paint they carry.  Not anymore buddy.  Now you can only get certain colors in each line of paint and for the color I picked today I could not have it mixed in the cheaper paint, even though it is a Valspar color.  What kind of crap is that?  Anything to force you to buy things you might not want to buy, like more expensive paint.

I am not going to sweat it.  I will write Valspar and see if they will honor their bottom line promise…if you don’t love the paint they will let you get another can on them.  And if they don’t I  will travel the extra mile to Home Depot and buy Behr’s from now on.    I like to paint so it would behoove them to give me my refund. Here is some of the cans in my basement and there are just as many in the barn. Notice the brands?  All these cans of paint were used in my one bedroom house.

Also the paint I got today is the  paint that has primer in it.  As I explained before I always prime first but I tried this paint to see how it works out.  Having to only paint once is fantastic but it has never happened.  Also I find that when you prime first your colors come out richer.  Don’t fall in the trap of buying the same color primer as your paint either…that does NOT work.  If you are painting a light color prime with white or light gray, if you are painting a bright deep color (like red) prime with a medium grey.  It saves a lot of heartache and buyers remorse.  When I painted yesterday it went on with one coat.  I painted over it today and mmmm no, it has to get a second coat.  I have “holidays” everywhere.  I prefer two coats anyway…

This new color is called Butter Cookie.  It looks just like butter cookies.   I looove it. I am putting a photo here cause the pictures of the walls have all different shades showing.

 

I do have to say though that like glossy finishes, lighter colors tend to be less forgiving.  Dark and flatter finishes hide a lot of mistakes.  That and caulk.  LOL.

I am not sure what I am going to do with this dividing beam.

I think I am going to paint and treat it as if it were a column.  I have to get in my mind how I am going to trim it.  I guess I better crack open this trim book I have.  Or should I wait until I put the floors in?

For now I am going to bed and I should not be tossing and turning since I got the color I like.   I looove getting what I want!!

Here are more shots.