I'm in love.

With this paint color. Behr "Harmonious", a beautiful greenish-blue that has far exceeded my expectations. I can't find my original swatch, and the Behr site is all Flash, and the link won't work, sigh, so you'll have to take my word for it until you get to the end of this post. No peeking!

Over the summer we'd collected a stack of swatches for the guest bedroom, all a variety of blues, greens and greys. We wanted it to be different than anything we'd used so far, and we thought we could go with a bit of a bolder color than we might normally chose.

The final selection process for this color went something like this...Of course I always struggle trying to make up my mind with these things. We'd planned to go to Home Depot for a few things on a Saturday afternoon, and paint for the guest bedroom was on the list. So Saturday morning I sat myself down at the kitchen island with a mug of tea, a laptop, and a stack of paint swatches. Knowing how differently colors can look on the walls, I tried to google each of my favorite colors to see if I could find a photo of a room in that color. I didn't have much luck with the Behr swatches I'd selected, probably due to it being a new color line. So I looked up similar Benjamin Moore colors until I narrowed down my final choice.

I walked into Dave's office, where he was on the computer, and planted the swatch on the desk. "This is it. Don't let me change my mind."

Hours later at HD, swatch in hand, we stop to look at paint colors, as we always do, hoping something new and wonderful will pop out at us. "Do you think it's too much like the living room color?", Dave asked, looking one more time at our selection. Eyebrow raised, I turned, "No, not even close." As we are sifting through swatches, looking through booklets, we spot a sample room with two-toned walls, both colors similar to what was to be our final choice. We like the darker one, but it's a bit too dark. We pull the individual swatches to see what they look like. Damn it, now I'm doubting my choice.

Determined not to be swayed I point out that the darker color is very similar to our choice when you look at the individual samples. We go back and forth, comparing levels of green, lighter versus darker, etc. Finally, ah yes, we agreed, back to Behr UL220-6, aka Harmonious.

This was several weeks ago, and I've been itching to get it on the walls ever since. We've been trying to get everything done outside before the snow comes, so inside projects have been on hold. Until this weekend, when I found myself home alone for the better chunk of a Saturday afternoon. As soon as I was alone I set straight to work on the guest bedroom. It took forever to get it prepped and ready. This must have been a child's room, because the walls were nicked, the trim was dingy, and and I found remnants of glitter stickers when vacuuming out the corners. It was a mess. It had at some point been painted a flat white, and in keeping with this house, someone did a crap job. There is flat white paint all over the glossy cream trim, which will have to be touched up at some point, assuming there is some leftover in the basement. If not, matching will not be the easiest task.

Anyway, after nearly two hours of patching, sanding and taping, I was ready to get some color on the walls. I loved it again the minute I opened the can, and even more with just a small section of trim done. I was giddy, working my way around the room until I finally had the first solid coat on. The room was a lot bigger than I realized, and I thought I might not have enough paint to cover a full second coat. I decided to wait until morning to finish in case I ran out, that way at least the store would be open so it would just take a quick trip to finish up. Turns out I had enough to finish, barely. There is even a tiny bit left for any touch ups down the road.

Every time I go up or downstairs I stop to peak at the new room. The color is so gorgeous it almost makes me forget about the hideous white carpet in the room. Or maybe that's because I still have all my drop cloths down. Hmmm.

So without further ado, the before and afters of the guest bedroom (so far)...



Before: Nothing to write home about. White walls, white carpet, off-white trim. I hung a pair of pale gold curtains on the existing curtain rod. A small end table with a lamp and a large printed canvas were the only bits of color. It was very undone, to say the least.



After: I'm not sure if these photos are really capturing the true beauty of this color. It really has some nice depth to it. I can't wait to pull the rest of the room together. We've already picked out some artwork, as we have a theme of sorts in mind. Next up is picking out some fabrics, and I've been on the hunt for the perfect lamp. Wish me luck!