apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

The color you have currently is beautiful... a sophisticated greyish blue that does not look like a Thomas the Tank Engine kids' room (which the first blue reminded me of).

I've done this too many times...
I guess the record is 7. Recently I did the entire wall and realized 2 weeks later that it is not working. Guess what... its still blue and its still not working. I'm tired of painting, and moving furniture.

Nonce. Measure sixteen times, paint once.

we just painted our living room green.... after trying a bunch of samples we THOUGHT we had the right green, but after living in it for a couple months, i like it less and less everyday.

we are going in a completely different direction now with gray... it was just too hard to find the right green.

i love that blue in the final pic!

Wait once. I did repaint once. God that sucked.

And this is why I'm terrified of colour.
Your final blue looks wonderful. I'm having an "I'll have what she's having" moment.

Maybe there is hope for me and my colour-phobia. Chromatophobia?

I painted my living room 3 times.... I finally got the color where when I sit in the room it makes me happy especially when the sun pours into the 2 giant windows...
It is actually close to the second blue you painted... and I put accents of black white and linen.... I am almost finished decorating...
From my experience, sometimes when you finish painting a room and all of the furniture is in disarray... it looks terrible... putting things in its place and sitting/ getting to know the color for a few days helps alot!
Your place looks beautiful... relax and enjoy ...hang some artwork that helps too...

Bedroom 2, Living Room 2, Office currently painting 2, Dinning room 3 times. Wardrobe once but thinking about changing (Maybe not the most settled room in the apartment).

10 total...all I can say is thank god I invested in a spray painter tiwce. {Loaned it to a friend didn't work when I got it back}.

Until I get it right.

Twice. If I can't find the perfect shade the first time, I usually go a completely different direction. I just don't have the patience to try various shades of the same color. I certainly applaud those of you who do.

It's not the perfect solution, but if I have some idea of the color, I do a Google image search, a flickr search, and a Google blogs search with the name of the paint color to see what it looks like in other people's rooms. I know it won't be quite the same on my walls because of lighting and other factors, but it helps me get a feeling for whether or not it's right. Reduces the number of repaints.

I have never repainted, but I did buy about 30 sample pots from Benjamin Moore. At $2.99, they added up, but at least were fairly effortless. It's amazing how different a color can look on the wall from how it looks on a chip.

Oops, mean to add that I really like the final blue.

This happened to me this summer. I had to paint twice, with primer. This was the expression of how I felt about the whole thing: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allabouteve/3668320945/

I really like those red chairs... does anyone know where I could find them? Are they emeco?

The final colour is awesome! Looks great with the red.

Generally I get it right the first time, and I don't use samples either.

I did have to repaint twice over the last 30 years due to poor color choice.

Although I've often had the "OMG!" moment when I first apply paint to wall - I never second-guess myself.

I finish the job, do the second coat, wait for the paint to dry and install the curtains, hang the art, furnish the room, etc - I know that color always mellows once the paint dries, the furnishings are in the room and under different lighting conditions from the unfiltered glare of the midday sun when I'm painting. It's after all this I realize that while I may not have "The Perfect" color, I have a color that works well with my style and is one I can live with for the next few years.

I have a question.... with a toddler, how did you even find the time to paint once?

Maybe once, if the color was just glaringly, horribly wrong.

That blue looks just fine to me. I'd definitely give it some time before deciding if you want to paint again.

God bless my husband. I repainted room often when we were first married. He bought me a piece of drywall, cut it in half, and insisted all try all four future color choices on the drywall instead of the wall and observe them for 72 hours. It makes such a difference to see the colors in the room where they will "live". And see them in the morning and after dark. We just finished a new house and not one room color did not work because I used my faithful drywall to observe the colors. However, I won't even begin to tell you how many different colors I painted those drywall pieces! No sissy colors either! http://www.marcusdipietro.com/Residential/bea/beaPage.html

I have repainted my breakfast room so many times in the past two years I think I added over an inch to the wall! I'm getting ready to paint again during the holidays. The room does not get enough direct light to give me the results I am looking for, and also, I paint at the drop of a mood change. I am thinking about posting on AT to ask for opinions because I am fresh out of ideas if my latest choice doesn't work for me.

lol teeze... we have a 2 year old boy, and just bought our first home which we've been doing lots of work on... and grandparents/relatives are the answer! lol they take him overnight every other weekend to let us get stuff done. i'm also a sahm so on the weekends my hubby will work on projects and i get our son out of the house... going to parks, window shopping, visiting friends/family.

its really hard though!

Call me crazy but is it not easier to paint one large area of a wall and live with it for a few days study it different times a day before painting the entire room?

Zero, I would just deal with it. Too lazy.

Those saturated dark blues can be oppressive if the space is not as large as the RISD gallery.
The last one is a good blue, but might work better as accessories or furnishings. What if you had a glorious throw in that blue. Or a large moody blue painting.

Working with what you are showing in the room now, with that floor,(which I do not think can handle that blue) I would use a modern nuetral on the wall & find or make a generous sized beautiful throw with your blue. Then a hit of another color to moderate the relationship between the red chairs and your blue.

For me, the question is how long does it take to choose...an obsessive process for me. Once I decide, that's it until I tire of the color.

That first blue: horrible. Second: better. Third: beautiful. Well worth the effort. Just think of the first two as undercoats.

I painted my bathroom pink, yup. What the %*@k was I thinking?! I personally only painted part of it, and I wasn't sure of the color, so I left it. I went to my parents house for a few days because our family dog had passed, and when I came back the whole bathroom was painted! My boyfriend had done it to be nice, and I had to act really grateful, but I DESPISE it. I had picked it because I thought I needed a girly place, then I realized that I am so not girly. Now I really need to paint it but can't decide on a new color.

I hate painting and hiring someone to do the job is expensive - especially with no voc paint that my hubby and I prefer. So we put up tons of swatches and look at them in different light and live with them for a while before we finally make a decision. I also search for images of the paint color names on flickr and google image to get an idea of what an entire room will look like in that color. It's worth extra time to get the color right the first time around!

Paint samples are a godsend. Even if they don't have the color you want in a sample, it's probably worth having them make up a quart (or small size) of it so you can try it out. It's better than the hassle and expense of repainting.

When i was painting my breakfast nook, i wanted a bright, saturated yellow. I'm so glad that I used paint samples, and lived with them for a month first. I found out that one color was extremely painful when hung over, and that another one looked lovely except at night when the it looked like nasty melted butter under the florescent lightbulbs. The third option was consistently perfect, and I only had to paint once.

I might repaint once, but I have a friend who, among other thinsg, is a color consultant and is fantastic at finding the right color. Not only was every color in my own house spot on, but she then did the same with my parents house. I'd rather pay her a consultant fee anyday, than pay for multiple cans of paint and take the time to actually paint more than once.

I've lucked out so far and never repainted because the first color didn't turn out the way I wanted. I was initially shocked at the lavender color of my bedroom, but after it dried, I liked it.

A few years ago, my landlord let me pick all the paint colors for our entire flat after we had a fire and it got professionally repainted. I spent a lot of time pouring over the color chips for 11 rooms hallways, but I'm thrilled with how they all turned out despite taking some risks. We get lots of compliments from visitors (and the landlord!) on the colors.

I painted the living room a gorgeous yellowish green with a touch of grey. It looks gorgeous. Because the dining area /kitchen are attached I painted it the same color. It's a horrible depressing grey in the kitchen/dining area. 4 years later I am still waiting to repaint.

I am happy to repaint till I get it right... perfectly right... it isn't worth going through the trauma of emptying a room and all the prep work and so on... and then just giving up... For me it is worth the effort of an extra couple of days worth of wet paint, rather than looking at something I can't stand and then redoing the whole project later on because I just can't stand it!!!

I love the final blue here - not too sweet, we have a bottle green bedroom that took ages to get right!!! And our lounge is brick red - well you have no idea how many bricks are out there in the world!!!

When I painted the living room I got a couple of test pots, painted them on lining paper and pinned them up in the room, moving them around to see what the effect would be in different positions and in differing light. I loved the colour I finally chose, but now it's on the wall, I love it even more. It is a soft green with no hint of yellow. At night it is etherial, just fabulous.

Perfection is an illusion, and repeatedly painting walls in similiar shades trying to find the "right" one verges on the solipsistic.

Like all beauty, the lack of perfection is what gives a decor its character and appeal.

100% with bepsf... I'm a HUGE believer of coordinating, not matching, but on top of that I'm usually spot on in my paint-chips... so if I don't instantaneously love the paint shade, I try to tone it down or boost it up with accessories or fabrics... at the end is the styled version that you get to see, not a pure-hued wall... hopefully anyway. lol

i labored over a deep red for the kitchen, asked all the kids their input, put paint samples on the wall, and and finally chose one that really complimented a reprint of an old chinese cigarette ad that i bought for $3 and totally love. the color is just PERFECT for that picture which looks so good hanging on that deep red wall, with its black frame. but NOT AT ALL perfect for the honey toned oak kitchen cabinets. it makes them look dingey and garish and horrible. you know how horrible and blotchy your skin tone can look with the wrong shade of lipstick? yeah. ok, now imagine walking INTO that. sigh. but it was red, and so took 4 coats to be even. not to mention the TIME that went into planning it...it was a year of debating and imagining and taping and scraping and priming and gah! i can't bring myself to think about doing it all over again. what color enhances old honey oak cabinets, for crying out loud?! xo

For anyone who may see this, I'm hoping for some blue bedroom wall advice . . .

I'm moving to a small home with normal height ceilings (I'm used to far more character than this), hardwood floors . . . and I only have a budget for paint.

I'm wanting to use a lot of blue paint, different shades, throughout the house. The bedroom is serving as the greatest obstacle. It might not work.

I have this duvet: http://www.blisslivinghome.com/categories.php?cPath=152_826

and a vintage chair that is sort of the peach color from the leaves on the duvet

So given those colors, is there a blue in the world that would work, if I were to work it in some of the decor as well or I am stuck with a neutral?

ALL ideas welcome.