Perfect!

I love Pinterest.  I really do.  Anything you want to learn about, decorate, look at or be inspired by, it is there.  It is also a maximizers worst nightmare.

I have been planning for many, many months now to paint my bedroom/bath blue.  And I even knew what color I was going for.  A soft, blue, gray, green color that changes in the light.  Nothing loud, obnoxious or "baby" colored.

So I looked on Pinterest for inspiration.  And I found it.  Loads and loads of colors and pictures all claiming to be the "perfect" color.  I got to the point that I would pin any color that looked like the color I was going for just for the sake of pinning.  Heck, why not? 

The problem starts when you stop looking and start buying.  What looks great on a computer screen rarely looks great on the walls in your own bedroom.   So, I picked out a few colors that I thought would work, looked at paint chips taped to my walls and finally went to the paint store to buy samples.

I put them on the walls and those gorgeous looking colors looked like they came straight out of a baby nursery.  How do you pick?  How can colors look so different from a computer screen to a paint chip taped to the wall, to the paint on the wall, to the entire room being painted in that color?   

So, I went down to Sherwin Williams and picked up a few more samples of a few other colors that looked like what I wanted.  Offhandedly, the guy pulled out a fan deck from Restoration Hardware and showed me one that was similar to what I had picked out. Since the sample cans were on sale I bought them both.  I then told myself I would not buy another sample.  I would pick from what was on the wall.  I won't tell you how many samples I bought, but it was more than 5 and less than 10. :)

And the one I chose?  Restoration Hardware Silver Sage. Yes, the one the paint guy told me about. Not any of the ones I had pinned on Pinterest. 

By the way, all of the colors on the Restoration Hardware fan deck were gorgeous.  I may consider using them in the future.

And you know what?  It is perfect.  I love it.  It is just what I was looking for.  I should have saved myself hundreds of mouse clicks and several paint samples and just went down and asked the paint guy.  What a relief!