Rug, check. Drapes, check. Sofa, check. Upholstered chairs, check. Enough to move forward with a paint color, I’d say.
I started by putting up about 12 paper paint swatches from Benjamin Moore. 2 of each, on different walls. From there I narrowed it down to 5, which I put on several walls.
These were the semi-finalists – the ones for which I bought actual paint samples. (All are from Benjamin Moore.)
- OC-34 Marble White (at right)
- 211 Fresh Air
- 344 Halifax Cream
- OC-38 Acadia White
- And, just because I can’t leave well enough alone, one sample that was 50% HC-6 Windham Cream and 50% OC-38 Acadia White.
The blue tape, as you might have guessed, is painter’s tape with the color numbers written on them.
From there, I narrowed it down to 2: the Marble White and “The Mix” – the 50/50 Windham Cream and Acadia White.
The winner? Oh, come on – you can guess. Why make things easy for myself?
That’s right. The Mix. The Marble White was just too…white.
So my trusty painter Alfredo Garcia and his capable sidekick Edgar showed up as planned on Saturday morning. They opened the paint that I had bought (trying to streamline the process), and look. Look at the corners, where Alfredo started cutting in.
Ack! Can you believe it? The paint store gave me the wrong color!
The large swatch in the picture below is The Mix, and the cutting in is the paint I bought. It looks like undiluted Windham Cream to me.
I offered to go back to the Benjamin Moore store, but Alfredo insisted. They were extremely apologetic, and in an hour or so we were really on our way.
So what can we learn from this, Gentle Readers?
- First, that everyone makes mistakes, even the color gods at the paint store.
- Second, that you should stick around – or drop by – when you’re having something painted.
- And third, that sometimes being picky and high maintenance pays off. I think The Mix looks beautiful.
I took these at night, so it’s a little creamier than it is in real life, but not much.
Well, you know what they say. Sixth time‘s a charm.