Dirty Little Secret

Ok, here we go. Confession time. Even I make mistakes *gasp!* Shocking right?

I have a terrible time choosing paint colours. I pick one. Second guess myself. Pick another colour. Second (or third?) guess myself. Then I pick a completely random colour and slap some paint on the walls (while crossing my fingers and hoping for the best). Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

I was inspired by these gorgeous, sunshiney laundry rooms...

{from Real Simple}

{from BP4}

We went through our whole 'paint choosing' process which involves grabbing a bunch of samples and taping them to the walls. We immediately eliminate the ones that we don't like and then check out the remaining contenders at different times of day. I wanted a happy yellow, but not too crazy. A cheerful and energetic yellow, without being too bright.

{such a sweet, innocent colour}

I ended up choosing Bicycle Yellow. Sounds fun, right? The paintchip was a warm, buttery yellow - and it looked like a pretty good match from my inspiration rooms. Let's just remember where we started - the laundry room as we saw it when we first viewed the house. The green carpet and disorganization drove me bananas.

While I bookclubbed with some lovely ladies upstairs, Jeff put 2 coats on the laundry room walls. And then I went down to see...

OH GOD WHAT DID I DO???

And that was as far as I wanted to go into that room. You had to squint it was so bright. And I felt terrible. That paint colour was totally my call and dutifully the Hubs painted 2 coats of it. So it was my job to fix it. But first I needed to lie down because looking at that crazy yellow made me a little dizzy. Oy!

The next morning I made a cup of tea and sat down with Devil Yellow Bicycle Yellow and a can of plain white and started mixing. I added yellow, one cup at a time, to the white paint until I reached a colour that didn't make your eyeballs bleed when you walked into the room. Success! Here's a quick snap we took just after I finished 2 coats of the softer yellow and Jeff laid down our new flooring.

And here's our new washer dryer in their new home!

Sorry for the crappy picture! Trust me, it looks great!