50+ Shades of Grey

I'm not talking about the book here, folks.  I'm talking about paint.  Yep.  I decided that I wanted to paint the room a nice light gray.  Something that would pair well with white, yellow, rosy reds, aquas, and pinks.  One would think this would be an easy task, right?  Oh you are so wrong!  I went to my local Home Depot and went home with twenty-six different shades of this pallid color.  One knows that one never selects a color for a room at the home improvement store.  You have to take it home and tape the sample to the wall and stare at it for a while.  Then when you think you have the right color you go back to the home improvement store and you get a two dollar can of test paint and spread it on a three foot section to see if you like it larger than the two inch square sample you started with. 

One would think that out of twenty-six shades one would find the right color.  One would be sorely mistaken if one actually thought that.  So, as it happens with home improvement projects, I ended up at Lowe's.  From there I brought back twenty-two more (and different) shades of grey.  Still there was something lacking.  I toddled on over to Sherwin Williams and brought home yet another handful of paint chips to try to find that perfect shade.  This just wasn't working (and the Sherwin Williams employee was not even the slightest bit amused with our references to the best selling vaguely literatured erotica trilogy). 

Where does that leave us?  Going to look at fabric, of course!  Isn't that they natural progression from paint chips?  I happen to fortunate to live in the same town as a mecca of fabric.  It's called A&E Pharmacy.  Now from the outside A&E Pharmacy looks like a run down small town barely hanging on pharmacy.  In fact when you step in the front door of A&E Pharmacy and see the baskets of make up leftover from the 1980's and the sun bleached pink flamingos in the window you might be tempted to turn around and run the other way.  But if you can get past the dusty packages of Crunch bars and the wilted greeting cards you will find a treasure trove of fabric.  Some of the most beautiful quilting fabrics all lined up in fabulous collections begging to be bought and sewn.  And that is where I start to find that perfect grey paint.

Shopping for fabric with me is not a job for the weak or faint-hearted.  I start with a shopping buggy (that's what we call them down here in the south - buggies - carts to those of you further north, although those of you in Great Britain probably know exactly what I am talking about).  I begin by throwing everything that catches my eye into the buggy and don't think about whether or not they go together.  I go on impulse.  Then when the buggy gets too heavy to push or too tall to see above the tower of fabric, I go through each one and decide if it is a yes, a maybe or something I'm not completely in love with.  If I don't find the right fabric I keep doing this.  I only had to go through two buggies of fabric before I found the piece that was going to help me choose the right color paint.  And this is it (along with a paint chip I found that brings together all the colors I like - kind of).  Here's the mill for those of you that are into that kind of thing (like I am):

I finally have the selection narrowed down from the collection above down to this:

This fabric is going to be the valance to these three windows:

I am so ready to stick a fork in this project and call it done.  I'm weary of all the boxes and "stuff" (I'm being kind here) stuffed in my dining room and spilling out into the rest of the house.  The floors are coated with sheetrock dust, fiberglass insulation straws and grime from going in and out of the new room.  I can't breathe in my house, I wake up stuffed with red itchy eyes, and the house smells of staleness.  I have no room in which to create and my desk is currently disassembled so Dan could get into the attic.

Maybe I need to run away and come home with everything is finished.  Sigh.  I guess I best stick around.  I mean there is tile to pick out and walls to paint.  Of course at this point I could just wallpaper the entire room with all the paint chips I've amassed.