{three cheers for painted walls}

The second I moved into my room, I knew I wanted to paint. The walls were off-white, riddled with puddy patches, &, well…. so boring. I would've been more okay with the walls had they been stark white, {because I'm newly obsessed with fresh white walls}, but they weren't. The cream walls + incandescent lightbulb + limited natural light created a yellow tint throughout the room & I was dying to get them covered.

Once the landlord approved my request to paint, I headed over to Benjamin Moore's website & picked out some colors. I knew I wanted a shade of gray for a few reasons: 1) it would match my carpet, 2) it goes with everything, & 3) it's my favorite color.

Guys. There are SO MANY GRAYS. 

Grays with blue undertones, green undertones, yellow undertones, brown undertones. Grays that look gray when it's on it's own, but is actually blue when it's next to anything white. I seriously drove myself crazy with the options. I thought the hardware store was going to start charging me because I was taking so many paint swatches.

After taking this color test, I can proudly say I have absolutely flawless color vision. {It took me five minutes & I got a perfect score of zero. What what!} So I was VERY particular about what gray I wanted.

The finalists were comped up in Photoshop...

^^pretend there's a space in between gull & wing

Gray Horse & Cliffside were in the lead until I found Gull Wing Gray & Rockport Gray. Gull Wing bordered on an ashy blue, while Rockport leaned towards greige. I figured it was better to try out really different gray tones than two similar ones, so I headed off to the hardware store to get some samples.

Before I tried them out on the actual walls, I painted two pieces of foam core. Totally recommend doing this. Both looked pretty good against my carpet, so I taped them to the walls & stepped back.

If you look at the picture on the left, Rockport Gray--the top color---looks green, does it not?!  I only see green. Granted, this photo was taken at 10pm & the only light was the ceiling light fixture, but Gull Wing was the clear winner. I loved it even more right up against the trim. 

{I still really like Rockport Gray & think it looks great in a room with tons of windows/natural light, but sadly my room is not one of them.}

Finally! A decision! Hooray! I sent the color to my landlord, cleared out my room, went to work, & came home to this…

The classic before & after:

^^the walls look a gazillion feet tall here, but the rounded ceiling 

actually starts about 1.5 feet above the trim

I'm TOTALLY thrilled with the color. {And clearly I was so excited to photograph it for you that I couldn't even bother to straighten the cord mess & picture frames under my desk.} 

The curtains, carpet, & walls all look ah.mah.zing together. I also really like how the color changes throughout the day. Sometimes it looks like a really light gray, other times it looks dark, & other times it looks blue. But the kicker? No matter what time of day, it never looks bad :)  {or green} Most importantly, the space feels much more mine. I love it.

So…do you think I made the right choice??

PS. I was totally down to paint the walls myself, but San Francisco rental laws are weird & I wasn't allowed. My amazing landlord had to hire someone & I just had to pay for paint & labor. In the end I was relieved a professional did the job though, because all of the trim made me very nervous! I would've totally messed it up.

PPS. I promise there are other sides to my room...I just haven't shown you them yet. Maybe when I clean it?