I wanted to paint the living room. I have a sweater that I like and decided that most of the house would look just great in that same color. It's sort of a muddy greenish brown color. On the day I was getting the paint, I dug the sweater out of the washing machine and put it up against the wall just to make sure. Yep, looks good. I took it (still wet) to Home Depot to get the color just right.
Mike watched all this with a raised eyebrow but didn't say a word. You see, I told him that I would paint the living room and he did not need to help. Besides, I was pretty sure he couldn't pick a good color...or even worse, say "white".
I bought the whole gallon. I decided to wait until Monday to get started. That way he'd be at work and wouldn't comment on how dark it was while I was painting. (I was having my own doubts) By the time he got home I would have one wall done and he'd be pleasantly surprised by how nice it really was.
Monday afternoon I got busy. I painted one spot and it almost looked BLACK on the wall!! A friend of mine called while I was doing this. She is a designer. She said I should never buy a gallon, always start with a quart. Where was she this weekend? Oh well, I thought, I'll take it back and get it a little lighter. I did that and tried again. This time it was much lighter but still dark. Even worse is that now it looks like poopy diaper color. "It's fine", I thought, trying to convince myself that once I finished a whole wall it would look better.
It didn't. Periodically one the kids would come down and comment with their noses turned up..."Is THAT the color?" Not to be swayed, I said "Yes! That's the color. And it's NICE!". They obviously don't have good taste.
By the time Mike got home I could deny it no longer. It was so uuuggglyyy. So dark, so brown, so yucky. He was very gracious and just smiled. I think he loves it when these things happen to me. He just said that he thought it was weird for me to make such a rash decision, that it was out of character. I'm glad he thought so. Of course he thought it very funny when I confessed that I didn't think he could pick a good color!
The whole thing is kind of funny now. Yesterday it was not. At least not to me. You see, I wasted $36!! Plus a good 2 hours. Both of those things mean a lot to me. I hate wasting time and money and especially BOTH at the same time!
I was reading my Bible before bed and I realized that I did not even pray about painting the room or picking a color. Some would say that God does not care what color I paint my living room. I would have to disagree. The Bible says that God calls all the stars by name, he knows how many hairs we have on our heads, and every sparrow when it falls. His Word says that I am more important to Him than all those things. If I had consulted Him I know I would've picked a better color b/c he knows my tastes and preferences better than I do. He also gave me my husband as a protection. He also knows my likes and dislikes. I disregarded both of them and the result was something very ugly.
Well, I will pick another color. Mike says "Please do!" I will pray about it first.
I have a small chalkboard in my nightstand. It was a gift from a friend as a visual reminder of forgiveness. (I'll save that story for another time) I like it b/c of what it represents and also b/c it was from such a sweet lady. I decided to paint the back of it with my ugly color to serve as another visual reminder. Hopefully this won't happen again.
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