Painting the whole room seems like too much work, particularly since our walls feature an unfortunate streaky texture that I have no idea how to rectify. Which leaves me with altering the color of furniture and upholstery. After an hour or two of messing around with various options, I come up with a version of the room that I’m happy with (above).

color away
The first thing I do is to drag the tall file cabinet – emptied of its contents, of course, to make it slightly less unwieldy – outside for some painting. I’ve decided to paint it a yellowy-orange which, unfortunately, turns out to be just a little more yellow than I’d actually hoped for. Interestingly enough, I also discover that it’s the exact same yellow hue that I’d chosen to paint our side yard gate – which I suppose means that I must just really, really like this color, and subconsciously gravitate towards it even when I’m not intending to. At any rate, by the time I discover that the color’s not exactly right, I’ve done four coats and am feeling completely un-inclined to buy new paint and start over.

I console myself with the reassurance that the color’s not that far off, and besides, it’ll look better once it’s sitting next to the other file cabinet, which I’m planning to paint a yummy lime green. Of course, the lime green is also not quite the color I had in mind – again, it seems a tad too yellow – all of which serves as a lesson to me for future projects: paint does not look the same at the store as it does once you bring it home. Paint a large swatch first and look at it in the room before making any commitments.