Big Old (Painting) Mess

Our house is in a state of complete chaos...because I'm painting the living room. We'd picked up a ton of paint samples and taped them up to the wall, moving them around and checking them out in different light. Justin and I had differing favorites, but both also loved a third swatch by Glidden, which I was planning to see if I could have color matched to Behr. I've never used Glidden, but knew I liked Behr, so I figured why mess with a good thing. I had been holding off though because the nearest Home Depot is a bit of a trek from us, and it didn't seem worth it to drive out there just for paint--I'd wait til Justin got paid next, and we were out in that direction.

And then yesterday I was at Wal-Mart and remembered that Better Homes & Gardens has paint now, and it's made by Glidden. I had the swatch in my purse, so I headed to the counter, and sure enough, they could mix me up a gallon. I knew we could probably shuffle a few things around in our budget to make it work to buy one gallon and get started, so I went for it.

I'm not sure that I love it right now--it's definitely not quite as saturated of a blue as the photos I had for inspiration. But, it was definitely one of our favorites of the swatches when we saw it in all the different types of light and all the different walls (the wall on the right in the photo above seems to always be significantly darker than the rest of the room--probably because we don't have any overhead lights), so I'm pretty sure we'll like it once it's all painted and our stuff is back as usual. It's a lot less dreary and depressing than the gray (which my dad totally warned me about when we painted initially, but I didn't listen), so that's a plus.

Also, the paint is okay. I don't like it as much as Behr--it feels a little thinner, and I feel like I have to stir it more often while I'm painting. But, it's not a bad paint for the price point.

I've decided that painting when you have to shuffle around furniture, play kitchens, and a gazillion books is 856 times (rough estimate) more difficult than painting an empty house. I can't wait to be finished! In the meantime, I think we'll have a few Dora filled days around here.

PS- I mentioned that I want to do floating shelves on that wall as part of the wall gallery. Before, our floating shelves were espresso. They might still be usable, but got pretty banged up in the garage, so we may end up buying more anyway. If we do, would you buy white, or espresso? Our couches and bookshelves are espresso, but our desk (which the shelves will be above), a bench, the trim, and a few other pieces of furniture in this room are white...and then there's the hutch that is more cherry and doesn't match anything else in the room. Not sure which direction to go, and would love some advice.