emotional color day...

After almost 3 years, I decided on what color to paint the master bathroom. Actually, I didn't decide -- David Bromstad (of HGTV Color Splash fame) mentioned on one of his shows that "everyone should paint their bathroom spa blue". So, I said "okay David" and proceeded to the bathroom with my wooden crate full of Martha Stewart paint chips. I think I might be missing a few -- but have over 300 colors that "belong" to her -- and a few of them belong to me and are painted on our walls. So, after a day of watching the color chips in different light settings (morning, noon, night with lights on) I decided on "MS 261 Sea Spray Blue". Rick was very happy that we were going to put some color on that big wall you see in the background of the picture below.

So, today we went over to Lowes to purchase some wood for a small project and stopped into the paint department for some pink paint for Sofia (not an MS color -- I think this might be a subconcious form of rebellion from Sofia). Anyhow, I figured while we were there, I might as well get the paint chips that are missing from my MS paint chip collection -- so I headed over to the wall where they are located -- and they were gone! What? This is not making sense to me, so, I look around and don't see the MS brand label above any of the paint chip areas. I am suddenly overcome by emotion and cannot speak -- good thing Rick was there to ask the sales associate what was going on. Apparently, Ms. Martha wanted Lowes to fork over more $$ to her for her exclusivity (the increase has to do with something about attorney/legal fees -- sounds like a bunch of chicken poop to me). So, Lowes said adios Martha. Waaaaaaa! I regained my composure and asked the sales associate about what to do when I need to purchase paint to match the Martha on my walls. He was very kind (my heart was on my sleeve after all) and explained that he could probably help me out. At this point, since I was not feeling the warm and fuzzy, I proceeded to pull paint chips from everywhere in an attempt to replace the "Sea Spray" color that I FINALLY decided on for the bathroom. The stack shown in the left side of the picture is what I brought home. There are almost 100 chips in the stack. Exactly ONE of those chips might look like the MS 261 chip. I can't be sure because it is a Waverly color (which I have never used) and the chip has no coordinating color strips on it. Sigh...

Rick, understanding my frustration in the pursuit of the perfect color -- and his own personal weariness of the "builder's white" wall in the bathroom, suggested I go online to find out if Ms. Martha would be selling her colors anywhere else. You guessed it -- Home Depot -- but not until March -- guess Rick will have to put up with that white wall a bit longer.