and it was all yellow...

...and horrible. Granted, I've had my fair share of "Oh my word, this looked way better under the store lights!" moments. But by and large, I've been pretty fortunate in the paint color department. (My budget is so relieved.)

But these landlords (bless.) had a seriously hard time. Our master bedroom was pistachio, for goodness' sake! Rule of thumb: not all hues automatically go with whatever white is on your ceiling and trim. Ouch! If it hurts your eyes, don't do it.

The guest bath was another terrible - albeit darker - green which they thankfully covered over in beige before we moved in. The forgotten color tells its sad story, though, in drips on the baseboards and countertop and mirror! (Tape off before you paint, anyone?) I'm really glad our landlords don't follow my blog, BTW! At least I don't think they do! I'll know soon.

Since then, we covered those beige walls with some leftover Urban Mist from covering the pistachio in the Master. I could feel my angst melting away.

But for the last year and a half, I haven't been able to reconcile myself to this sight:

It just hurt. I mean physically. My eyes actually throbbed when I looked at the yellow. Especially wherever it met the white trim in the room! It caused a little vision explosion where the colors touched that just wasn't normal. And to top it off, the room was bossy as all get-out. Lest you think I exaggerate! I shall demonstrate.

There is something to be said for painting swatches of your color choices on the walls, against the trim, in the light, in the shadow, so you can see how it looks in different lighting for a few days before you invest in a couple gallons of mistake! You can never know by looking in the store. NEVER.

And in this last photo you can see the new color going in the corner. Which - combined with the yellow - also hurt.

But I pressed on because I knew the outcome would ROCK. What paint? What else! I uncovered a happy little surprise of a whole gallon of extra Urban Mist and just decided this needed to be done. (Urban Mist is a Behr color, kinda grey-blue...we used their interior semi-gloss, paint and primer in one!) So after a quick trip to Lowe's for a shorty angled cutting brush, a new paint pan, and some frog tape (which I didn't use, what!!), I got right to work. A couple evenings & naptimes later...happiness.

Gotta take some new pics so I can let you see the result! Oh, happy day. I don't cringe when I walk down the hall and glance to the right anymore!

Tell me, do you have any paint color skeletons in your design closet? Any oops color stories? Have you rented a houseful of bad choices (and therefore had to live with them)?? Any favorite never-fail perfect color ideas out there? I know people have favorites and let me tell you, in this house, Urban Mist is on the top of my list!