feeling like home

As our last days as renters draw near and we await that final call that we've closed on our house, we've been thinking about ways to make it feel a little more like home. Our unique situation of having lived in the house we're buying for eight months as renters means that the excitement of moving into a new place is pretty much non-existent. I'm thinking that a great way to make it feel like a home of our own is to paint. Paint EVERYTHING. We've kept the walls a stark white since day one probably because Ben has stated on more than one occasion that he hates painting. I have to admit, I do like the airiness that the white brings but I think this change will be good for us as a first step towards creating a space to call home. And guess what, honey... I LOVE painting!

Step 1: Pick a color

Ben and I have one thing going for us (aside from the obvious)... We have pretty much the same taste when it comes to decorating. Both of our favorite color happens to be gray... or grey. We've also both been feeling the vintage look for awhile, adding vintage pieces here and there so gray will be the perfect color for our walls, while keeping the trim white.

Step 2: Pick a shade

So we've settled on a color but now comes the hard part... the shade. I thought I knew exactly what I wanted. The blue side of gray would be a little too cool for our taste, the purple side a little to well, purple and while I like the greener side I didn't want it to be too green. While grabbing a few paint samples at our local Home Depot I came to find that just finding a gray that was GRAY would be a little more difficult than I thought. We picked five varieties and splashed them on the wall above the fireplace. After living with them for about an hour I realized they were all too dark! 

Lesson learned: Gray (or grey) is a lot darker than you think it is.

Back to Home Depot to pick up three more shades (and a few more brushes). The dabs of paint on the sample containers looked white by this point but that wasn't going to stop me. After applying a total of eight shades of gray here's what we came up with:

Top row: trip #1

Bottom row: trip #2

I'm a very indecisive Libra so let's live with these for a week. Right now I'm thinking second one in from the bottom right... Dolphin Fin. What do you think?

Step 3: Paint the room... To be continued.