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Shine Your Light

Painter’s Remorse

Have you had it too?

As you know I’ve been working on my master bedroom.

This was the room before we bought the house with, of course, a very pale shade of peachy-yellow on the walls (every wall in our house, along with some trim, was painted in peach tones by the previous owners).
The pet-stained carpet was absolutely vile and I literally sneezed all day, every day, until we had those suckers ripped out and replaced.  (The funny thing is that we saw and then put an offer on this house the very first day it went on the market. In retrospect the carpets must have just been cleaned, because they looked absolutely spotless – so if you are trying to sell your house make sure to have your carpets cleaned!)  
Ripping out those gross carpets remains one of my favorite home improvements to date!!
A couple days before the new carpet was to be installed, I panicked about the prospect of painting the walls with brand new carpeting on the floor, and made a very spontaneous decision to quickly paint the walls Ben Moore’s Clarksville Grey (#HC-102 ), a color I’d seen in the Pottery Barn catalog.
From the second I opened the can I knew.
I knew it was not for me.
Ben Moore paint is not inexpensive, and when you’re painting every single room in your house those gallons of paint really add up. However, after trying other brands over the years, Mark and I are both partial to BM for it’s coverage. But — at $40-$50 a can it’s not cheap, and so I went ahead and painted the whole room even though I was not loving it. 
In someone else’s home this color might be beautiful, but in the lighting of our master bedroom, day or night, it takes on an army green tone that I am just not fond of. Also, I would love to paint our reddish-toned bureaus but Mark is adamantly opposed to it. The combination of the olivey walls and the reddish furniture?? MMMM pretty. But I have invested time and money into painting the room so I tried to make it work.

Last year around this time I tried to love my blah master bedroom more by bringing in shades of the sea during the Color My World Challenge.

It was fun to try freezer paper stenciling, create tracing paper and tissue paper canvas art and bring in some soft aqua blues with bedding and accessories in the bedroom and adjoining bath, but the overall feeling of the room was meh. hmmm. ho hum. blah.

In our last house we had a chocolate brown master bedroom and loved it. It was like a cozy cave and that room just felt GOOD to be in. Okay – so we deduce that dark in the master makes us happy.  But we were over the brown. And I have been thinking a lot about warm and cool together. In particular – charcoal grey or black with wood tones. Brown leather with navy.

ooooooooh. yesssssss.

{Canadian House and Home}
{Serena and Lily}

{Lauren Nelson Design via Decorpad}
{Rue}

After hemming and hawing and painting 47,937 samples on my wall, my good friend Jenny of Evolution of Style recommended the greeny blue navy, BM Gentleman’s Gray (#2062-20) that she had used in her powder room.

And just like I KNEW when I opened that Clarksville Gray that it wasn’t the one, the instant I opened the can of Gentleman’s Gray (that has not a shred of gray in it, by the way), I knew. We were meant for each other.

No matter how many times I paint various rooms, it’s truly amazing to me how a color can affect your mood and influence the feeling you get when you are in a space. And to me, repainting a space is worth the painful waste of choosing the wrong color if you find a color that speaks to you.

Funny thing? A couple of weeks after I painted the room, we went on our dream vacation with our munchkins to Hawaii and were surrounded by the most beautiful greeny blue waters.

It was like Jenny had some crazy intuition that our master bedroom would come to remind me of one of the happiest times with my family. Pure genius, that girl.

Oh the drama!!

Changing the wall color has inspired me to bring the rest of the room together. So here goes….the to-do list for the master bedroom. I’m posting a list right here to make myself accountable.

Paint the walls and trim
Install bamboo blinds
New lamps
New curtain rods
Recover headboard
Create a vanity table
Recover vanity stool
New bedside table
Custom bedskirt
Wall sconces
Get rid of ginormous TV

So tell me, have you ever had painter’s remorse??

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. oh man have i had it! YES! and you know what, i just pretended to like the color rather than admit it was horrible because i am stubborn like that. 🙂 now i know not to bother painting it entirely unless my gut says a big fat yes!
    LOVE your new color!

  2. I completely know what you mean!! I'm about to repaint our master bedroom walls too. My husband painted it while I was out…so I wasn't around to stop him when he started… it looks like flesh. lol. I messed up!! But for now, it's not too overpowering since we have art up on the walls. I painted our family room a dark deep blue that I had the opposite reaction to. I love it! And it's incredibly calming!

  3. Aw, thanks for the shout out Lisa! I had to laugh, because I had the same reaction when I opened the can of Gentleman's Gray – I just KNEW it was the right one! I adore it in your master bedroom! It looks like the perfect place to cozy up for a good night's sleep or an afternoon nap on a gray, rainy day (like today!). 🙂

  4. Yes, I have had it. Now, I no longer try to live with it because I know I will still hate it. I just suck it up, and paint immediately over it. Paint is really bad when you get it wrong for you, but mood altering when it is right. Good for you that you kept at it, and now love it.

  5. I just love the color! Glad you went with a bold choose. Sometimes I feel like Pintrest makes me second guess myself since all rooms seem to be white, white and more white. But then I remind myself that white walls are so not me. Best to repaint and have a home that is true to you!!!

  6. When I was pregnant with my first child I left it to my husband to paint the office. I returned home to find streaky Kool-Aid red walls. Not only was the color awful, I was also remorseful for letting my husband be the one to paint them. 😉

    -Rebecca

  7. Oh-several times, Lisa! I have painted and, like you, knew from the moment that I threw up the first swath of paint that I should quit right there. The worst was painting a girl's room the color she picked out…Called raspberry dream…it was more like
    berry puke! AWFUL…felt like I was imprisoned in a jar of jelly and couldn't get out- xo Diana

  9. It's obvious you're not alone! I painted my entire house the wrong color when we first moved in b/c I wasn't secure enough to follow my gut. It lasted 3 years then I promised to repaint the entire house myself to save money. It HAD to go! Your bedroom is GORGEOUS.

  10. I've been there, too! Love the color you chose, it looks just like your moody inspiration photos! I was noticing the coordinating colors mother nature paired with it in your Hawaii pics ~ very pretty!

  11. I have painters remorse almost every time I paint a room…I live with it for awhile and the entire time I think I should have picked the other color. Ugh, LOL

  13. Ugh, too many times. We painted our bedroom a few months ago and I HATE the color. I knew as well. It's supposed to be a gray color but looks baby blue. I usually paint a swatch but was in a hurry so it's my own fault. Our room is on hold until I figure out another color. I feel like we sleep in a little boys room.
    I'm definitely with you on warm and cool colors together.

  14. I can't believe how absurdly excited I am about someone else's master bedroom makeover. . . I want to help and get all up on this!

    Sadly, I dont love my bedroom paint color, either. But I cant bring myself to change it because I'm cheap and I will have the craziest hardest disaster area to paint on the planet. Like, tape off five million different mouldings, take down heavy wall hangings, move the ginormous bed. . . sigh. I'll live through you. Kay?

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  16. Oh my friend, I have painted our living room more times than I can count. It was such a good learning experience though–I learned so much about light and color every time I experimented and failed. I love the color you chose and your inspiration images are gorgeous! Can't wait to see the transformation.

    -Lane

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  18. Yep, I've been there before. I love the new color and I don't think you can go wrong there. Can't wait to see the room evolve.

  19. This is exactly the reason I hire a decorator to come to my home to help me choose the right color paint for my rooms. She charges 75.00/hour which is LESS than I would spend on finding the right colors (Yes, BM paint adds up FAST!)

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  25. I can't believe I stumble upon your blog today of all days, I am trying to decide between several shades of blue for a small den in my house and one of those colors is Gentleman's Gray! I may have just picked the winner! Thx!

  26. Just had serious painters remorse in my powder room. My house has mainly gray or griege colors and the master bath I just finnished in Palladian blue cut to half strength. Loved it all until the powder room…i thought i would be different and since i had punches of coral in the family room the powder room went to coral! I spent hours looking over samples and swatches and painted some on the wall. I went with vintage coral by Behr. First wall it looked nice but by the last was hideous neon..the room has no natural light. In that room awful so it may just become something to paint furniture with. Then i rushed out to get a peachish color crisp straw by benjamin moore and neon orange! Sigh! Again probsbly be real nice it a light and bright room. Now looking at the direction of navy..which was my first intinct and am going to paint gentleman's gray what an interested color and no neon i hope! Started out thinking hale navy but gentlemans gray is winning. And going to get natural lights that might cut the horrible neon glow it turns the colors in there. My colors are currently BM abalone-guest room lavender gray and quite serene. BM edgecomb gray living room, loft and halls of open concept home, BM revere pewter- office, BM 1/2 cut Palladian blue master bath. BM Azure water-daughters room-very pretty sophisticated teal. Looks great with woods and white. Family room- BM jute (nice but not a slam dunk) with silhouette acent wall(love similar to kendall charcoal) Still to do..daughter bath-likely a lavender white?, master bedroom- still thinking looking at SW collanade grey but i have a lot of easy greys already so not quite enough difference room to room with the grey. and possibly do something with the laundry room maybe a old white with bright trim…though staying away from coral on walls!

  27. @Treat your pets too This is hilarious. I just picked Palladian Blue for our master bedroom, which is a perfect colour for that room because of all the natural light.

    The reason I came on this blog is because I accidentally picked antique white for our trim. I mixed up SW Antique White and BM Antique White. Ahhhh! I now have beautiful edgecomb grey-like walls in my living room, a light pewter ceiling… and a peachy pinky trim. Sometimes I tell myself I’ll live with it– mostly because my future FIL painted the trim for me and I can’t imagine going over the hours he spent painting it. I might just have to suck it up and paint over it by myself. The room is empty, so I’d rather do it before we put the furniture in.

    • Cori I feel your pain on the trim that is not the right color. I have been there so many times with paint colors that were not right. I’d paint the trim now instead of waiting because chances are the trim color isn’t going to grow on you! BM White Dove is really pretty with Edgecomb Gray (I have it in my dining room) and Decorator’s White is a bright white that is really pretty with it too!