Identity Crisis

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My house is having an identity crisis. If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you know that I have lacked progress of any kind in choosing the right paint color for my home's exterior.

It began with a gray blue in May 2014:

Meh, it was okay but nothing fantastic.  In October, I picked up some sample pots of more saturated colors.

 

But those were dismal and felt oppressive.

How about more shades of gray-blue?

Nope. It doesn't really tie in with the brick.

In November I thought I'd try out some earth tones.

Looks great on the paint cards but lame on the house.

Later that month I tried a chalky gray with blue/green undertone.

Nope.

At this point I am so tired of spending money on the paint pots. Each and every time I go into Sherwin Williams, the same guy is working and he probably knows all by children's birthdays and favorite movies by now. Thankfully he is a really helpful guy, but each time I walk in and see him working, I duck my head in shame because I am back...again. Come on, Chris. Take a vacation or something.

This was the state of my front window all winter long because it was too cold to paint. So embarrassing. I am starting to think it looked better as a board up. At least all the color of the plywood boards were consistent and non-offensive.

I began talking to my house this winter (like a lunatic). I'd stand on the sidewalk in front of it and ask it what color it wanted to be. And my house just shrugged its brick shoulders in complete disinterest. I demanded my house to make up its mind already because when I use one paint, my house would decide to be a yellow house and with another paint, my house decided it wanted to be brown.

I mean, doesn't my house care that this paint job will revolutionize its beige existence and take it to the next level of awesome [but only if I get the color right]?

And now I know why there are so many homes out there painted with white trim. Because their homes are having identity crises.

 

Last week we had a warm up so I tried a gray-brown. Or plum? Green?

Last week, my mom came to town and we sat outside for quite some time and chose a color after scrutinizing it in different lights in different parts of the house. We thought we had found The One. So I picked up yet another paint pot (of course Chris the Sherwin Williams guy was working). We excitedly put some color on the house, held our breath, and....it was teal.

Teal.

Oh, and then my friend Shar (who has no interest in paint colors whatsoever) comes walking up the street and declares that it's the ugliest color she's ever seen.

Thanks. Thanks, Shar for suddenly developing an opinion about colors today when I am on the brink of a nervous breakdown.

So this week I painted it the color of an old copper gutter because every old house looks great with that copper color patina, right?

 

 

I had high hopes for this one but it's just not The One.

So now it's back to house stalking.

If you have a house with the color brick that I have, you can expect to see me driving by and taking photos. Like a creep.