A paint by any other name... would still not be fun to apply

Yesterday was wallpaper paint day. A day I had long dreaded as wallpapering and painting are two of my least favourite things to do in the world. Knowing that the end result will be well worth the pain and suffering, I pulled myself out of bed on our day off and headed to Home Depot. I brought in my wallpaper sample, and matched it to a Behr’s Ultra Premium Primer and Paint in one called Pensive Sky. Quite fitting for a city such as this. Our skies are quite pensive. It wasn’t a perfect match, but I thought it paired well enough with the wallpaper without being too “seafoamy” which was my main concern. I brought my $5 sample home, and slapped some on the wall in a little sample patch. In the jar, the paint looks white. Like “I think they forgot to tint it” white. I didn’t see any semblance of colour in the jar, but once on the wall it started to dry a very very light icy baby blue.

I quite liked it, although I did feel that perhaps it wasn’t pushing my boundaries quite enough. And it surely wasn’t anything like the grey that the sample showed. I wasn’t quite sold on it, so when hubby rolled out of bed at noon (apparently not such an eager beaver for the home projects, are we?) and expressed his distaste for it, I was more than open to other options. On the same colour swatch paint card thingy, one spot up from Pensive Sky, was “Rhino”.

I had my eye on Rhino. He was a tad darker than I imagined the “one” to be, and perhaps not as feminine as my subconscious was pushing me towards. It did have a really nice hit of grey though- and I have been wanting to incorporate some grey into our townhouse in the worst way. So, when hubby looked at the paint card and loudly declared his affection for Rhino, I leaped for joy. Not only was this a colour I wanted to try out (despite my slight apprehension), I was getting to paint our dining room in a colour that hubby himself felt like he selected. Bonus!

So, after 4 trips to Home Depot, and 14 hours of “game time” from start to finish (drive through lunch breaks and taping off trim time included), we collapsed on the couch and let the new colour set in. We may have been delusional from exhaustion and lack of food, but we could still appreciate the beautiful colour on the walls. Although these aren't the greatest before and after shots, the wall transformation looks like this:

Before: Builders Beige

After: "Rhino" Muddy Grey Blue

I’m really happy with the outcome, but I can say with absolute certainty that I truly and utterly despise painting. It is so so exhausting. My body just… aches. On the plus side, the whole cost of out kitchen/ dining room paint-ovation came to about $0. Now that will be another post!