It's a rainy Saturday Spring morning in Minnesota. After a couple of really nice weeks and above average temperatures, I guess it's okay. It's a good morning to drink coffee and ease into the weekend.
I admit that I'm feeling a little frustrated thanks to a mess in my condo (or "flat" as I prefer to call it). It all started in February when I thought I should consider repainting a wall in my living room. I've lived here for five years (almost to the day!), and the really long living room wall has annoyed me since Day 1. It's been mostly empty, and I keep thinking one day I'll just get really inspired and figure out what to do with the space. Five years later...
So in February, I thought I should live on the edge and take some radical action. Sitting and wishing wasn't going to change anything, and my muse apparently got a better deal somewhere else. So, I picked out a color, and with reckless abandonment, I just went crazy. Within two nights, I painted the whole wall, and then the next weekend, I painted two more walls.
But here's the thing: I really didn't like the color from the beginning. The rich Tuscan amber color I thought it was going to be turned out to be more like the pasty "fleshy" Crayola crayon color I chose to color white people as a kid. I knew I didn't like the color after Wall 1 was completed, but instead of picking another color and cutting my losses, I made a conscious decision to go to the paint store to purchase an additional gallon of paint. Before I knew it, I had expanded the color around the next two walls. I really thought that if I painted more walls this color, it's Tuscan tones would glow, and I'd like this color as much as I had hoped.
Now I see the error in my logic: Adding more of something you don't like doesn't make you like it any better! However, like in any bad relationship where an investment has been made in hopes for a better tomorrow, I continued to try and make it work. So next up? I thought that removing all my decorative items from the walls, fireplace mantel, and TV armoire might help. It seemed to make sense since now the picture of a map of France looked too green, and the cranberry-colored candles just looked stark against the fleshy color. I relocated the family portrait from the TV armoire over to the mantel, and I switched the location of the Tuscan olive jars (one being the color inspiration). However, a few items were non-negotiable and would stay in place - the mantel clock and the the black and white photo of my sister, mom and me at my sister's wedding.
The Tuscan olive jar that served as the color inspiration faded into the wall (duh! rookie mistake). Rearranging and even removing some of my favorite items including the area rug in the living room and the window treatment I sewed without a pattern did not help the color win me over, either.
The net result...it's never going to work between us. I changed my living room for this color! I turned my back on some of my favorite things! I really, really tried!!! And what did the paint color do for me? Nothing except look good on paper - literally. It just was what it was from the very beginning despite an occasional change in lighting that gave me the illusion of hope.
It's okay that this paint color isn't "The One." That's okay. We had some fun, got people talking and learned something in the process. We'll be friends.
So back to the paint chips. Back to the paint store....this time for just samples vs. a whole gallon. Not sure if the next paint color will stick, but eventually one will. Or not. But this one is definitely not.
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