Living Room Freshen-up

I mentioned yesterday that I painted my living room. Let me tell you, choosing a gray is EXTREMELY difficult.

I wanted one that was in the same family as the bit of gray hiding in my Anthropologie curtains, but I didn't want it to be that dark. Honestly, I wanted it about the same saturation level as our previous color -"Fen," a sage-y green from Martha's defunct line at Sherwin-Williams.

I started the process of choosing a color with at least 40 paint chips. I slowly pulled the ones that appeared purple and the ones that appeared too brown. I moved the paint chips from sunlight to shade and from near trim to away from trim until I had it down to 5. From there, I had Adrian choose. (He's pretty good at that kind of thing - And he has the degree to prove it.) Plus, I would have hemmed and hawed for days unable to commit.

Once Adrian chose (the one I was most leaning towards), I just went for it.

When the boys caught up with me at the Lowe's, I had two gallons of paint purchased. No samples for me -- that would just allow me to procrastinate longer.

Of course, as I was applying the paint, I fretted about it's lavender quality. Luckily once dry, most of the purple undertones smoothed out (despite the appearance in this photo) leaving a nice "Perfect Griege" (a Sherwin-Williams color).

New paint! Living room looking southeast.

New paint! Living room looking north. Front door to the right.
This photo most accurately shows the color.

Tomorrow, we'll take a look at how the room has evolved (like this evolution of Linus's room) from it's very earliest "Holy cow, we can afford furniture" days to it's current "Family hang-out" status.