One Room Challenge Week 7: Furniture Touches + The Great Paint Debacle

I wish I was coming here will at least the beadboard and trim installed, but instead this week has been filled with sanding, sealing, sanding again, sealing again, coming to the verge of tears, sanding and sealing again…then moving onto buying paint, testing paint, hating paint, going back to the store and tweaking paint, testing paint again, and finally finding something that works.

Reno and DIY is so different than what they show on TV. Some things just take WAY more time than they should or could ever anticipate. But after this week I’m fully equipped with all the supplies I need (except the art) to finish this room. Not going to lie, I’m pretty darn nervous about being able to finish on time 😬.

I stared the week by finishing up Aubrey’s new dresser which I built by doing an Ikea Rast Hack, combining two that we had to create a perfect sized dresser for our five year old. I forgot the wood conditioner before the stain and ended up going through a process to battle the splotchiness and to get a smooth finish. It’s still slitting in her room with nothing on it while the Polycrylic fully cures. But it turned out so pretty and she loves it. And I love how well it goes in the room, and how it’s the perfect height for her!

While I was at it with the Polycrylic I went ahead and sanded down the top of her antique table nightstand to get rid of the water rings she had already created on it with her nighttime drinks. Then I sealed it so we didn’t have to worry about that in the future. I cringe thinking I almost painted this little table. That inlay is so gorgeous!

Then came the Great Paint Debacle. I took a piece of the wallpaper to Lowe’s to have it color matched to find the perfect shade of pink. The computer pushed out a very purple toned pink and I just wasn’t digging it, so the employee and I tried to rummage through paint chips until we found something we thought would work but didn’t read so purple.

Well it didn’t work. It’s hard to tell in this picture, but what I ended up buying was way to warm and bright, and well, not pulling the purple tone I later realized it would have to have if it was all going to work together.

I painted swatches all around the room and felt my heart sink with each one accepting that I had screwed up with the paint. So I sat in her room trying to figure out what I needed to do to fix it, IF I could fix the paint I had already bought. I held up all the swatched I was previously considering and sat puzzled for a while. 

Eventually Aubrey came in and told me how much she loved the pink I had chosen. But I explained to her why it wasn’t working and what I was trying to figure out, she looked around and said, “oh, like this pillow?”

Yes kid. EXACTLY like that pillow!

So off I went back to Lowes, fuzzy pillow in hand, praying they could correct the paint so I didn’t have to buy another gallon.

I learned that color matching does not work well with fabric, especially fuzzy pillows. I also learned that Lowe’s has the ability to ask its computer how to get from one color to another. It couldn’t get a perfect transition, but it got close. They swiped the new color on top of the previous color. 

I took this picture when the light was fading last night, but pink was cooled down, purple tones are coming through, and I think we’ve got a winner.

Now I’m just praying I have enough paint to do the entire room because I have no idea if they will be able to match it again to buy more 😬.

To follow along with other amazing transformations don’t miss the One Room Challenge blog here!