Living in blue.

I finally got Sean to participate in home decorating more than hanging, cleaning paint rollers, hammering, pushing, pulling, etc.  When we moved in we switched the living room and dining room of the previous owners because there is a small office/room off of what is now the living room.  We use that small room as a playroom for B.  I put the paint color of the living room low on the priority list because it matched the drapes from our old place that my Mom quickly cut up to make window treatments...matched perfectly.  I took it as a sign that it should be ok for a while.  That while has ended. I can no longer live in this color.  

The problem is not just the color itself but how what I have chosen to put in the room affects the paint color.  I got the sofa table and a glass doored bookcase since we moved in.  I didn't realize the wood color would be the tipping point of making this room just plain BROWN.  Brown everywhere.  Brown sofa's, brown side table, brown wood, brown trim, brown mirror.  All the brown in the paint color has come out to play it no longer lets the red play.  

An "accidental" booty shot of Sean...to detract from the chandelier we have yet to replace.

Choosing paint color overwhelms me.  It should be fun, right?  After one day of living in the first room I ever chose the color for we had to make a trip to the paint to store to get a new color because it was unbearable.  It's kind of like never wanting to get your hair cut again after you go through the trauma of a bad haircut.   

After only a little hand holding Sean got into looking through my fan decks.  He only had to take one break after feeling overwhelmed!  Picking a color is so much better with a friend.  We decided on blue.  (I think he secretly wants a grass green.)  Then we picked 5 Sherwin Williams colors to get samples of and hang in our living room.  (Those are the blue papers you see hanging in the living room pictures.)

Here are the five we chose:

Danube

Sean's favorite color.  ^

Jamaica Bay

Not bad but a little on the gray side for me.^

Capri

 My second favorite color. ^  It's a toned down Blue Mosque but a tad too much on the very trendy turquoise color train.

Blue Mosque

I am obsessed with this color. ^  Absolutely obsessed. I'm just not sure how it will be to live in it.  As I am writing this post at 10:30 at night it is extremely blue.  Slap-you-in-the-face blue.  But I loved it until about 10 pm.  

Flyway

 A Sean pick.  ^  Not bad but tooooo close to our bedroom colors.

We plan to live with these blue papers on the wall this week to see them in different lighting.  Hopefully the next time you see a picture of my living room it will be blue.

As I reread this before posting I wonder what is a normal number of samples for people to need before deciding on a color.....?