Doing it right

I am always striving for the perfect thing.  No matter what it is, I must over research it or else I end up finding a better 'whatever' just after I got my ' whatever'.  Then again sometimes I do research to the 'nth degree only to later find other features I hadn't thought of.

Paint is my latest research project.  Our bedrooms are in dire need of a lick of paint and I wanted to do them all the same as I'm not sure we will all stay in the rooms we are currently in.

Chosing colours was the first big task.  I had in mind the colour of a summers evening sky - a mauvey blue - but I also liked the idea of a duckegg blue too.  I alredy have the bedlinens for my boys rooms, Miller by Deborah Hutton when it as on clearance at Kamrt, and plan to accessorise one room in green and the other in reds. Our linens are browns which I accessorise with either blue in summer or red in winter. 

Miller by Deborah Hutton

I thought I had the perfect colour chosen, Haymes Sleepy Eye, but once I painted test patches, I decided it was too cold and not quite the colour I was after.  I have a Solver paint store literally a 3 minute walk away so after borrowing a fan deck, I had it narrowed down to 4 different shades. 4 more test pots later and I could make my choice.

Left to right we have Solver Parisienne, Solver Sloop, a small band down the centre of Haymes Sleepy Eye, Solver Teal Grey and then Solver Zephyr with another block of Sleepy Eye below it. Two of the bedrooms are on the south side of the house under a verandah so they don't get any direct sunlight and the third gets the morning sun, so this has to be taken into consideration.  After placing accessorising colours near them, my hudband and I narrowed it down to either Parisienne or Sloop.  I then decided on parisienne as I know if I did Sloop, I would always with I had the guts to do Parisienne ( I'm usually a very neutral person).  Parisienne goes wonderfully with the other colours I want to use and also has a little warmth to it.  This colour will be painted up to the picture rail with warm white walls above the picture rail and ceiling. Looking back at teh Deborah Hutton picture, its the colour of the wall behind the bed!

Now I can't wait to get started painting but next I need to chose a suitable paint.  One of the reasons I chose to go into Solver ( besides them being a short walk away from our place) is that they have a low VOC paint.  I still have to do some comparison with other brands and their environmental credentials.  Ideally I'd like a satin paint to bounce a little light around and also to make cleaning a bit easier ( also I really don't like the feel of a flat low sheen acrylic - it feels like a chalkboard), but Solver only has a low sheen or ceiling white.  

Painted Earth has a selection of low or free of VOC paints which have a pleasant smell, are non toxic,  a competitive preice and wash up in water. They can be tinted to any colour too.  I think some more research is in order.

Then its back to colours for my hallway and study.