Painting the room red

Published 9:21 pm Wednesday, October 8, 2008

I am currently working on painting a room in my house.

And by “working,” I mean I have gone to Lowe’s, picked up handfuls of paint samples and taped them to the wall.

Then, every other day or so, I walk in the room, move a couple of them around and call it progress.

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And, it is progress.

Last year, when I first moved into my house, I repainted a couple of rooms, but I left the third room in the house alone.

For months, I thought I was going to keep the room the same, pastel yellow color it was and make it sort of my study area — complete with some bookshelves, reading lamps and comfortable chairs.

Then, plans changed.

On somewhat of a whim, I bought an arcade basketball game (which, by the way, may just go down as the single best clearance purchase I have ever made).

This massive 7-foot-tall and 5-foot-long structure had to go somewhere.

So, it went to the “study.”

But, then, after the basketball game, came the dartboard, and then the scoreboard for both the basketball hall of fame winners and the dart games…so really the study is no study at all.

And, pastel yellow just doesn’t fit with the room that is one giant mouse short of becoming a Chuck E. Cheese.

So, the paint samples were affixed to the wall and friends were polled.

By the way, friends are probably the worst idea givers for decorating rooms because their suggestions are always half ideas/half dares.

“Lauren, you know what you should do? You should paint the whole room black.”

Or, “Lauren, just get that chalkboard paint and make the entire room a huge chalkboard.”

Right. That’s what I’m going to do.

Anyway, after some time and input from trusted sources, I decided red would be a fun color for the room.

But, oh, how many reds there are.

There’s burgundy, Persian red, cardinal, scarlet, red-violet, carnelian, persimmon and crimson — just to name a few.

After a couple of weeks (and couple of trips back up to Lowe’s) I thought I had picked out the red I liked the best.

But, when I showed my friend KC, she cocked her head to the side and asked why I was painting the room orange.

Needless to say, that sample was no longer an option.

So, if anyone out there has some suggestions of reds that do well – shoot me an e-mail, and I’ll have KC look at them.