Picking Paint: When The Love is Gone

This post was most recently updated on January 1st, 2020

I love decorating, but I have to tell ya, picking paint colours is pretty low on my list of favorite tasks.

For me, it’s a love-hate, ying-yang kinda thing. Excitement and apprehension. Gittyness and dread.

Right now, I’m trying to make some paint decisions for my basement development project and the love is gone. I’m really not having fun anymore.  Actually, let’s be honest. I’m in paint chip hell.

I’ve been through Behr’s, Martha Stewart’s, and Benjamin Moore’s entire decks.

I mean how many shades of gray and taupe and green can one brain really process at once? Does there really need to be a gazillion?  Did they miss the memo on information overload?

And, by the way,  why do they call something “tan” when it is clearly gray? Or “gray” when it it so obviously tan?  I swear it’s a conspiracy just to fool us into buying more paint when the “gray-you-thought-was-gray-because-it-was-called-gray” was actually tan when you put it on the wall ;-).

Am I making this all too complicated? Because it wouldn’t be the first time, lol.

Did I mention that I tend to analyze?  And, over-analyze?

And maybe my professional background has tainted me.  In in advertising and communications, colour selection is a critical element in persuasion; as much an art as a science. The psychology of a particular hue – from it’s undertone to it’s intensity – can be endlessly debated before a final decision is made.

But (tapping head with knuckles) it’s just my basement, not a 7-figure ad campaign.  I mean, really. What’s the big deal if I choose Providence Olive over Sag Harbour Gray?  Will the sky come crashing down?

That’s it.  I am putting my five short-listed  paint chips in a hat and having my 6-year old pick one.

(Fingers crossed, she picks Providence Olive. Or, Sag Harbour Gray.  Or…)