Painting....again

When we first looked at this house to move to, one of the first things we thought was, This place needs a paint job and some new shutters. The shutters were broken, the paint was so old, faded and ugly that it was hard to tell exactly what color it was or USED to be. Gray? Blue? So now, we've been here about a month and we've decided to get the job done.
Here's a before picture:



We went to Lowe's and picked out a color that would cover in one coat. We certainly didn't want to do this job twice. We chose a blue color and had them mix it. It looked a little bright in the 5 gallon can but we brought it home to get started early the next morning. Pouring it out in the paint pan, it still looked a bit too bright. On our road, our neighbors homes are all muted, neutral colors and the more we looked at this color in the pan, the brighter it became. We started on the back of the house and did a small section. OMG, it was BRIGHT! This was Paas Easter egg blue!! It was HIDEOUS!!! We let it dry...and it didn't get any better. Take a look:

I could NOT subject my neighbors to THAT! They'd have to wear sunglasses every time they left their house!! So, I went back to Lowe's to see if there was anything they could do with this color to make it darker, since of course they can't refund your money once the paint is mixed and taken out of the store. The lady there was very nice. I made sure to stress that this was NOT the store's fault. There was no mistake made...I actually CHOSE this HIDEOUS color!

Me: I hope you can make this better. I can't believe how bright this was on the house. I mean this is just HIDEOUS! Can you imagine having a WHOLE HOUSE painted with THIS hideous Easter egg blue???

The Lowe's Lady: Actually, my sister's house is this color.

Me: Well, it's just that my block seems to be very neutral. You know, grays, whites, beiges and we just want to fit in. We're new to the neighborhood. We couldn't go too light because we want to be able to cover the color that's already on the house.

Yes...I was blabbering. I was back peddling. I was tripping over myself trying to explain after just insulting this woman's sister's house. She saw that I was embarrassed and let me off the hook by telling me that her sister lives in California and people use bolder colors out there. LOL And that you can see her house from three blocks away but it kinda grows on you. LOL

Finally, armed with a MUCH better color we painted for two straight days. The house is blue with white trim and will have white shutters once they come in. Here are the after pictures:


Ignore that puddle of blue on the lawn. That's where I accidentally dumped the paint bucket. I think it came out great and two of my neighbors commented that they loved the color. I can't wait to get the shutters up. I think that will finish it off nicely.

Finally the shutters came in!

And while waiting for the shutters, I painted the shed to match. :)





See ya next time!