Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Paint

White Washing the Fence by Norman Rockwell




"You can never judge a paint color by the liquid color in the paint pot. You must apply it to the wall, wait for the paint to dry, and then decide."

Dorothy Draper...interior decorating doyenne and author of, Decorating is Fun!


I love paint. I love how something so easy and really very inexpensive to do, can completely change a space. And I love how paint can be manipulated through faux applications to add texture, and even architectural interest to a room.
But, oh Dorothy...if only picking out the color was so easy. And you left out one important detail: the enormous part that light, both natural and artificial, affects paint color. Although I follow your rules, it is because of light that I have trouble picking out paint; it is what turns a perfect soft cream color in morning into intensely hued and unacceptable ochre in the afternoon sun. Last week, after so many visits to Home Depot that the salespeople in the paint department began to cringe when I walked in - coming home with umpteen samples of paint to try, and doing as Dorothy advised I finally decided on the paint colors for the new family room project. I consider myself lucky this time...I only had to re-repaint two walls.

Do you have trouble with paint? Or is it just me.



5 comments:

  1. I wish I had a bit of Dorothy in me. The designers on TV also make it look easy. It can be very frustrating to get just the right color. Dealing with the light and the color and how they work together can be very tricky. Much like wallpaper, you really never know how it looks until its all up on the wall! I am anxious to see how it looks!

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  2. You will get to see it on Friday! Hope you like it.

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  3. can you post pics? so what brand + name of color? ohhh! can't wait to see. this is the first summer I haven't completed any interior painting...
    last summer I painted Allie's apartment.... she helped, of course! but I just kept going; like the energizer bunny - one more project! one more spot to clean-up... then the apartment upstairs had a leak & it messed up her bathroom ceiling. Maintenance fixed the leak; patched the spot; but Allie hasn't gotten the paint out to cover it with color! I guess it doesn't bug her??? and WELLL - she does have a new puppy + a boyfriend (of three weeks) + loves to spend her summers reading & relaxing before prepping for a classroom of kinders...
    I love painting. check this blog to see how my blog friend painted her doors: http://chezlarsson.com/myblog/2010/08/doors-handles-locks.html

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  4. You're home!

    I checked out the site you suggested...really neat. The colors I used are from Behr: Sensible Hue and Corner Stone. Both very similiar to the kitchen. I still have tons of woodwork to do.

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  5. It took us two years of paint chips moving around on the walls and sample spots to decide which color to paint our living room. The color we decided changes with every hour of daylight. It looks a different color first in the morning than it does at night.
    I loved your picture choice! My soldier boy loves to tell me stories and the story of white washing the fence was the first one he retold me while we were dating.
    Thanks for dropping by and posting a comment on my blog!

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