Ah, Paint...

When I started painting my daughter' bedroom, we went to Home Depot and picked out a can of lavender paint.  The girls wanted a darker paint and I explained that I always go one shade lighter because it looks darker when you paint a whole room that color.  So, we picked out timeless lilac and went home.

I painted the corner from the previous post, but my oldest daughter didn't like it.  At first, I was frustrated with wasting the money, but then I stepped back and realized that I would hate to paint a room all one color and then dislike it (like we had disliked the peach on their walls for 2 1/2 years).  So, I headed to the store and bought 1 gallon of a darker shade of purple and took it home.

I painted the corner over (it's the color in the previous post) and both girls liked it better.

Yay.  That's good.

I didn't know what to do with the lighter gallon, but I knew I needed to prime the room, so I decided to use it as primer for the room.

I went to town and painted all four walls.  But, then something strange happened.

They loved it.  I loved it too.  None of us wanted to go with the darker purple.  So, I headed back to Home Depot and got a second gallon of the lighter purple.

I know a lot of people who get the $3 samples from Home Depot and Lowe's.  When you're not sure about colors, this really can save you a lot of money.  After painting every room in three different houses, I felt pretty sure about the paint colors, so I didn't go this route.  But, it left me stuck with a $22 gallon of paint.

Ugh.  But, the best part of this story is that it's not actually going to go to waste.

I mentioned the paint story to one of my dearest friends and her reply was, "I'll buy that paint from you!  I loved it and had been looking for just that shade.".  Really?  My reply was to just give it to her.  I was so glad I could do this because she's taken care of my kids for me several times because she loves them and so I had wanted to do something for her.

I'm glad it all turned out.  But, I'm also glad that I painted the whole room in the lighter color first!