Four

Four.  Which could be counted as five if you really wanted to be pessimistic, which I choose not to be.  So, four.

This morning, in my fleece pants, luxuriously sipping a soy latte on my newly available* window seat, I decided it was finally time to paint my livingroom.  My motivation?  A party I am hosting here January 29th.  I am worthless without a deadline -- so I am grateful to have one.

And now, at 5:15 on Sunday evening, f o u r  is the number of paint colors I have tried on my walls.  Alternated with coats of Kilz.  That is one trip to Sherwin Williams.  Two trips to Home Depot.  Nine test spots on my walls -- you know how light plays -- testing one color in one spot is inadequate...

I think that I am trying to coordinate too many items, those items being fireplace brick color, mirror frame color, wood floor hues (see how artful I've become?  I'm speaking in hues) and my sofa.  Today through my trials and errors ("failures" seems too harsh) I was reminded that the color palette has warm tones and cool tones.  They do not necessarily play well together.

I even painted the mirror frame (FAIL) using one of the colors that didn't work on the wall.  "Oh!  It matches the brick so nicely but doesn't look good on the wall -- I'll paint the mirror frame!  I am brilliant!  Artsy!"  Yes, I will be repainting that.  Color TBD.  But in a fit of optimism, I did buy a can of satin spray on polyeurathane:  evidence that I believe I'll find a color for the frame worthy of sealing.

I started with a taupe-y gray.  Gray is trendy now, I hear.  Apparently I am not trendy enough, because I didn't like it.  (And neither does my mirror.)

Then I tried Buttercream yellow.  And a Humble Gold.  The buttercream was brutally boring, and the humble gold?  OH!  Talk about an elementary school days flash back to when mom let me choose my own bedroom paint color.  Let's not have that make an encore appearance in my 40's shall we?  I did leave a patch of the buttercream up for further evaluation...  A testament to my... what?  Boringness? 

So now, I am in the sage-y greens.  The current swath painted on my wall (in four places of course -- soon I'll have painted my entire livingroom with a coat of Kilz) is called Soothing Green Tea.  I could use some soothing about now... It's possible that I have a winner, but now it's too dark outside to have proper light indoors, so I cannot tell for sure.  I remain optimistic, but strongly reminded of why I prefer outdoor projects.  (I need an on-call interior decorator.  Why don't they offer 60 minute single project consults?)

* previously occupied by my Christmas tree, which made it's final Hallelujah Chorus into the backyard last night.