Hmm, I may have to re-paint

As I mentioned in my first post, the room I'm re-doing was my daughter's, re-done for her a year after her brother left for college in what I dubbed the "Fruit Basket Zebra" style.  I never did get photos of the room after it was fully decorated, but this mini-collage will give you an idea...

I stole the zebra-stripe idea from a room Doug Wilson did on Trading Spaces (though his was in the more traditional black and white), choosing the colors from a raspberry and tangerine plaid comforter my daughter chose.  The only thing that's still in the room is that barrel chair in the corner.  It's a really comfortable chair but, as you'll see in photos to follow, it's seen its day.  I would consider re-upholstering it (myself - I'm much too cheap to pay someone else to do it), but it wasn't a quality piece to begin with so  I'll most likely be setting it out with the trash this week.   

For now though, let's look at just how cute the current paint job is with the new bedding...

Woo-hoo!  Now that makes a statement!  

I know these walls must just seem insane to... well, almost anyone, but for my then-14-year-old it was the envy of all her friends.

There's that chair!  Yikes!  I was shocked at just how bad of shape it was in when I pulled the sheet off of it.  I don't like the mirrored closet doors either, but I'm not sure at this point whether I'm going to replace them or disguise them.  

I like black trim in some rooms and always thought it worked well with the Fruit Basket Zebra, but will probably be changing it with this re-do.  I'm undecided what color I'm going to use though.  All I know for sure is I don't like the idea of white with the carpet color - but I may change my mind.

Now we come full-circle back to the bed side of the room.  The paper lantern is, happily, the perfect color and I'll probably use it somewhere.  The ceiling is actually almost exactly the same color as the green in one of the toss pillows.... 

As you can see here.  But it's too electric a green for what I have in mind, so it's going to have to be painted.  Dang it.  I hate painting ceilings.  It's neck-straining, back-breaking work and of course I have plans that will make it exponentially so.    Now for the new, improved paint colors!

Ha!  That wasn't very helpful.  I clearly need to find a better way to photograph paint colors.  Until I do though, the color at left is Behr's "Dried Palm" and will go on the walls.  The strip in the center is Behr's "Home Song" and will go on the ceiling.  The top four colors on the right are all from Ralph Lauren's Regent Metallics collections, starting with  Silver Bell,  then Highgate, Olivine, and Thatcher Green.  The bottom is Behr's "Grass Cloth."  You're probably wondering now how on earth I'm going to work all of these colors in.  The answer would be: I dunno!  I have some ideas I'm kicking around, but haven't finalized my plan. 

A word about paint brands before I head up to start painting.  Most - if not all - painting contractors have one particular brand of paint they stick with for everything and it will usually be Sherwin Williams, Kwal or Kelly Moore.  They do this at least partly because they need a dedicated, full-service paint shop where they know they can go in and pick up exactly what they need at  any given moment, and partly because they get discount pricing when they establish an account and a history with a paint store.  When I first started painting professionally, I, too, used such a shop - Kelly Moore in my case.  However, at a certain point I started asking myself "Why?"  The cost of the paint in the total price of a paint job is really pretty minimal - it generally runs about 10% of the total job - so price alone certainly isn't/shouldn't be a determining factor.  I also got really fed-up with how badly Kelly Moore paints splattered when you rolled them on (this may not still be the case - I quit using them 15 years ago).  I also never needed a gazillion gallons at a time the way most painting contractors do, so convenience wasn't really a factor for me.  Considering those realities, I began using Consumer Reports recommendations to choose which paint I use on which jobs many years ago.  CR does a new round of testing every fall, and they rate a whole range of qualities for each sheen of paint, such as how well it hides with one coat, how prone it is to "sticking" (meaning if you use it on bookshelves, are the books going to stick to it - not how well it sticks to the wall), how smooth the finished surface is (not of much importance on walls in Colorado, since 99.99% of the walls here are textured), etc.  Both Behr (sold at Home Depot) and Valspar (sold at Lowe's) are consistently in the top three or four CR recommendations and I generally use one or the other.  I really prefer Valspar - it just seems to be a better "one coat" paint to me and it glides on like silk.   Also, Valspar is rated either "excellent" or "very good" in every category but "surface smoothness" which received a "good" rating.  Again, since there are virtually no smooth walls in Colorado, that's not a factor that really matters unless you're painting furniture.  Behr is rated excellent or good in every category except fading, for which it received only a "fair."  That's a much bigger consideration, particularly if you're using a deeply colored paint.  Since the colors I'm using in this room aren't deep though, I went ahead with the Behr simply because they had the colors I wanted to use in their paint deck.  And it's a lot closer to home. :) 

A couple of final notes on choosing a paint brand:  In recent years, Kilz (sold at Walmart) is giving the big boys a run for their money, but I refuse to shop at Walmart unless I have absolutely no other choice.  If you don't share that disdain, it's definitely one of the most economical choices.  Finally, paint companies reformulate their paints allllllll the time.  It makes me crazy!  Just when you think you know a paint, BOOM, they go and change it.  And the changes are not always for the better.  So take my recommendations today with a big ol' grain of salt, because they could be turned on end tomorrow.