WE KEEP READING that painting a room is the cheapest way to update it.
True enough, but no one said it was the easiest. Consider all the stuff you’ll have to box up, the books and bibelots that have to be put away, the furniture that has to be moved or, at a minimum, draped. Ugh, the only thing worse than painting is . . . moving! For all the same reasons.
All that aside, it does remain true that a fresh paint job—in a lighter, fresher color, or a deeper, more sophisticated one—can change a room utterly, without having to change anything else.
There are many, many tricks to checking out paint colors before committing to the act itself. Our friends at Houzz.com recently compiled this report.
—Nancy McKeon
Now. What to do when you’ve made a painting mistake, Nancy. Other than repaint….
I’m not going to tell you to buy all new furniture or reupholster everything, but I did once change out the soft accessories (pillow, a throw over the sofa, that sort of thing) to make the paint “make sense.” You can also adjust the lighting to trick the eye. And then, of course, before you put all the furniture and stuff back in place, you can, yes, try again!
When I was considering an icy blue-gray for my bedroom (and I am so not a blue person), I sent my pillow sham to the New Jersey paint store that distributes Donald Kaufman Color and had them choose the paint color for me. Best idea I ever had. I now want to repaint the living room and am wondering how to stuff the sofa cushion into a UPS box!