Paint Sampling

Try paint samples before actually painting a room. Other people can probably pick out colors fine without problem but not me (even in our current 2nd bedroom I thought I nailed it and nope!). I’ve read blogs that give tips on picking out paint colors, there is some great advice out there but my stand-by way of choice is samples. Proof lies ahead…

This is one of the first times nol-dog and I painted together. It took like 2 weeks for us to finish. Stink butt was a bit of a distraction as well. Anyway, you can see above the light switch we painted a couple of samples. The bottom one is waaaayy too light and you can barely see the top one, but it was waaaayy to purple. We went with a gray (surprise, surprise!) and loved it. I don’t remember the name; when we sold the house we left all the leftover paint for the new owners for touch-ups. I guess this doesn’t really sell my idea of paint sampling since we went with neither of the samples we bought….

I don’t even have a final picture of our bedroom, but here is a picture of when it was up for sale. One thing we didn’t do before selling was sand and re-stain the floors. Sadly, at some point the hardwood floors were ripped out in the living and dining area and replaced with carpet. 🙁 The only hardwood they left was in the two upstairs bedrooms and tiny hallway. Not what you’d expect in a 1940’s house.

Here is another paint sampling party in our old living room. As in most old homes the walls were plaster and had a slight texture to them. I actually liked this but not with the high gloss paint that the previous owner had. We wanted something more cozy for the living room and less shiny. We went with the darker brown/beige color.

See how much warmer & cozy it is?! We also painted the wood mantle white (not sure if that was the best move) and got new carpet. I kept some of the carpet scraps to cover the high traffic areas – it was pretty cheap carpet and I wanted to keep it nice for showings. The chaise in the corner is bophie’s nap spot, thus the big blanket. She is a goldendoodle so she doesn’t shed much but still, she is a dog. This picture isn’t complete, the mantle isn’t finished and the TV is missing from the stand, but you get the picture.