Holy shit, we’re painting ourselves into a Happy Meal.
Is there such a thing as paint panic? And, if so, am I allowed it?
Yellow. Call us renegades. We chose our bedroom paint colour after about 30 seconds’ deliberation:
- Yellow is happy and sunny.
- It matches our floors.
- It looks great with white.
- I couldn’t have paid Paolo to care.
We already knew the paint line we were buying – CIL NaturaLiving (super affordable and no VOCs!) – so it was just a matter of choosing amongst their yellows.
Too lego man, too lemony… chic yellow, are we chic enough for you?
Daisy yellow is the younger sister of chic yellow, and we adopted both. (My co-painter was kept away from the paint counter during the mixing process, sent off to find something manly, heavy, and Very Important. He doesn’t need to know his bedroom is daisy yellow. He might suddenly start caring*). Paint, done.
After long, hot, sweaty and dusty days of prep – it felt like Christmas morning to be painting. Cutting in the ceiling’s daisiness. That’s when, inevitably, I reached my oh-shit paint panic moment.
It’s way. too. yellow.
Here’s the thing. CIL’s NaturaLiving only comes in gallon cans. At close to $30 a can, on our budget, there’s no turning back. We were renegades, and cocky ones at that. The luxury of painting 5 or more test swatches just wasn’t happening. Nor was I spending even $5 to order large paint swatches (though a good idea). Once we’d committed, that was it. Although I’d robbed Home Depot of every card in that colour, then dotted them around the room’s many bizarre angles…. I’d never done what I realize now is the most obvious step of all:
Cut the card in two. Put the wall colour on the wall, the ceiling colour on the ceiling.
Oops. I’m really hoping, honestly & sincerely, that my Googling “does paint dry darker or lighter” actually yields the opposite answer found. It’s very yellow in there.
Don’t dwell.
We’ve spent the money. That’s it, spent. This is a flipping property. It’s about profit, not paint. We have to make quick (hopefully sound) decisions and move on.
What matters most?
That, on the day of the open house, potential buyers walk in the front door and love the entire effect. Love the place. Love the sunny, happy, inviting, snuggly feel – perfect for lemonade in the summer and cozy in November rain. There’s a long way to go from a naked little room with a yellow cut-in strip around the ceiling…to a finished, beautiful baby. Too yellow? We can work around that.
Right now?
Well, let’s say the room is in the equivalent stage of getting caught half way between your clothes and the paper gown at the doctor’s. The paper gown looks awful, the fully dressed and accessorized version is lovely.
Mostly naked between the two? No one wants to see that. Let’s not judge the ugly (possibly jaundiced) baby too soon. She’ll be right.
As for the How to Avoid Such Stupidity Yourself section of today’s paint panic, check out what Maria has to say about choosing yellows. A wise lady – and from Vancouver, too!
*Good boy-words for yellow include: hangover omelette, danger sign, Prince of Egypt, submarine, fireball, Giselle Bundchen hair. Avoid daisy yellow.
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Photos c/o via Thomas Hawk and Brandy Shaul Flickr Creative Commons
Hey, you want a s'more? Some more of what?
We had a yellow crisis in our current house. I wanted a room that was a soft buttery yellow. Got the paint home, put a few brush strokes on the wall, realized it was traffic sign yellow instead (probably not helped by the kelly green carpets that were in the room at the time). We went back to Home Depot and begged them to cut it with as much white as they could. It’s still a smidge too yellow, but I don’t feel like I need sunglasses when I go in there anymore. Good luck!
Oooh – you just needed a red ‘feature wall’ and it could have been your traffic light room! Thanks for the been-there-done-that vote of confidence!
I had a very unfortunate experience with yellow in my office, and actually just wound up repainting it (with free paint). Waaaay too lemony. Yellow is evil!
And to think that lemons are fantastic things in every form but walls. Sigh.
I’m with Stephanie: Take the offending paint back to the store and see if they can’t tone it down to your liking. Good luck!
Thanks Sally! (And I didn’t even know you could ask them to do that).
You can also buy a gallon of white paint and “dilute” the yellow color yourself – I’ve done that before successfully. Like Stephanie said, it doesn’t actually change the color of the yellow, but toning the intensity down really helps.
I know you had a specific brand of paint selected, but a really affordable way to tweak paint colors is to look for the “Oops” shelf at Home Depot, Lowes, etc. and grab a gallon of an off-white for like $5, then mix with your yellow and enjoy! Good luck!
Interesting – all this paint science and a steep learning curve. Thanks for the tip! Will definitely check out the oops shelf as well for smaller areas – great idea!
If I remember correctly, yellow becomes twice as bright on the wall as it is in the can. I have Benjamin Moore Mayonnaise (color matched at Lowes) on my walls and I like it, but it’s a subtle yellowy cream color. I wish I had gone a shade or two darker but I’m not repainting.
I was trying to decide between mayonnaise and a darker color but I can’t remember the name now and the colors on Benjamin Moore’s virtual fan deck are way off on my computer.
Haha seriously?! Well that explains a lot. It’s annoying how computer colours and real life colours look nothing alike, isn’t it?
Ah, just wait to judge until white moulding is on the walls, floor is in, furniture and mirrors up. I mean you are replacing those mirrors aren’t you??!
hehe
But really, I say hold off judgement until it’s done.
Beige is another hard color to judge. It changes with the lighting. I bought some for the bathroom reno, put up the two coats, looked at Ryan and said, “That baby shit color CANNOT stay” and went back to buy a different color!! LOL
It’s only paint. And heck, who knows, in 10 months, it might need a freshing up before listing and you can tone down the color
More mirrors – everywhere! The donation offer still stands. I think you and I share a similarly blunt appraisal of colours’ real shades. All very wise points – and a happy Thanksgiving of riotous good fun!
Happy Thanksgiving to you too!! May you con at least a real turkey sandwich out of somebody!!
It’s in the bag
I’ve had paint panic soooooo many times. More than once, I’ve painted a room, put the furniture back in, decided it looked like crap, took all the furniture out, and painted it again.
But I’m sure your yellow room will look great when you’e done!!
Kelly
AH! Kelly – you must have super-human painting patience! That’s highly commendable, worthy of chocolate stacked to the ceiling. I really, really hope I won’t have to do similar.
Yellow is a hard color to pick. I have had my issues with it. To me the color swatches don’t look so bad, just wait and see once the whole room is painted.
By the way I love Maria!
Thanks Laurie – I think it’s just taking a little getting used to. (Huge Maria fan too, definitely).
Oh no! I hope it isn’t as bad as you say. If it truly is, I think the advice to mix it with white on your own is spot on. Good luck!
Thanks Amy – fingers tightly crossed.