Martha Stewart - Paint

Martha Knows Best

I am in exterior paint color hell.

I knew exactly what color I wanted to paint the windows on my house.

a greyish, seafoam, aqua, sort of color.

I picked a paint color.

The painter put it on the windows and it looked terrible in the bright sunlight. Too pastel, too bright, too green. 

My painter insisted on using Benjamin Moore paints so I started with their colors.

Then when I couldn't find anything I liked,

he said I could choose a Sherwin Williams color and they'd put it in the Benjamin Moore paint.

This time I was smart....I thought.

I tried four different colors each on a large piece of foam core.

The next morning when the painter arrived...I was still walking around the house trying them all in the shade and in the sunlight. Whatever looked good in the shade, did not look good in the sunlight and vice versa.

The painter said, "I'll be back tomorrow. You decide and order paint."

So I went and got four more colors and painted four more test boards. One seemed just right but not that much darker than the first one I tried and hated. Because of this I went with the next darker color which seemed too dark. But the guy at the paint store said it would look lighter outside.

So I bought the paint in the darker color. Painter came today and started painting. And I hate it. 

How can picking a color be so hard when I know just what color I want?

Then I went to Home Depot while the painters were painting and I was hoping I'd return and love it.

I went straight to the Martha Stewart colors because this time I was going to paint my front door myself and I thought I'd pick whatever paint I wanted. 

I wanted periwinkle and neither Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams had a good one.

But Martha had the perfect shade called "Bluebird".

She also had the prettiest shade of greyish, seafoam, aqua.

I called my paint store and they said they didn't have her formulas but could try to match it. 

I felt too guilty stealing Martha's color. So I just bought the Bluebird and went home.

Tomorrow, I'm going to wake and go outside and see how the color looks to me today and if I still don't like it...I'll be back on a quest for the correct color.

Have you noticed how Martha always has such a beautiful selection of colors? I'm always happy when I go with one of her's. Or do I just feel confident in choosing one of her's because I know she has good taste? And if she likes it, then surely I will too.

I'm very unhappy now. I bet I end up repainting all the windows myself. I can't afford to have the painter do them again.