Painter's Remorse {Don't let it happen to you!}

So, you guys remember my navy blue wall I told you about a few weeks ago? I told you how much I loved it, right?

Lies.  All Lies.  I hope you can forgive me.

The thing is, I painstakingly painted two coats of "navy" blue on that wall.  The first tingle of excitement was real.  I loved the bold colour and my vision for our room.  Then, I wrote the post in which I revealed that lovely accent wall to all of you...

"Wow!" I thought to myself. "That wall looks SO blue in that picture.  It definitely isn't that blue in person."

More lies. It definitely was that blue in person. Royal Blue. I lied to myself for a good week or maybe even two?  Then, we got a date to have the carpet fitted. {The carpet went in TODAY! woohoo!}

It was at this point that I had to face the cold, hard truth.  The blue was too blue for me, and if I wanted to re-paint this wall I should probably do it before we had the new carpet installed.  Otherwise, I'd have to do things like move furniture and cover up carpet. Ain't nobody got time for that!

So, over the course of a couple of days, I did my research, bought some more tester pots, and made some decisions.

via

 Here's what I learned from this process:

1)Take pictures of your sample colours on the wall. If you look at a picture and think "woah!  That's not what it looks like in person!"  You might look at it again and realise that your camera "saw" something in the colour that you didn't see at first.

2) If you are using a dark/bold colour, use MATT paint.  This is especially true in a room with plenty of natural light. I originially went with a silk finish. While sitting and staring at my new blue, blue, blue wall in dismay,  my brilliant husband said  "Do you think you should get a Matt finish so that it doesn't reflect as much light?"  Duh.  Why didn't I think of that?

3) Undertones are important. This doesn't just apply to neutral shades of paint. Even a "blue" paint can have more purple or green undertones.  I wanted something with definite blue undertones.

4) Sleep on it.  Never use a paint tester, and run to the store to buy a tin of paint as soon as it dries.  Once it's dry, look at it. Then, look at it from different angles, in different lights.  Then, sleep on it.  If you still like it the next day, (or better yet...after a couple of days) go for it!

5) Don't feel that you have to stick with your "usual" brand of paint. Although, I did go with a paint from my usual brand in the end, I came across some great colours available from other brands. 

Let's take another quick look at the blue, blue, blue...
 
Here's the new colour we went for...{sorry. It's a phone picture ;)}

Now that's navy blue.

The new wall colour is a shade darker than previous colour.  That subtle colour difference combined with the matt finish,  makes a big impact in the way the room feels.  The new colour looked almost black next to the first blue. I went with my gut, and I'm so glad I did! The new navy seems more "moody" to me, which was a big part of my original vision for our new, sophisticated room.

I think that the original blue, while a nice colour, didn't fit into my original vision for our room.  This resulted in a lot of decorating confusion on my part.  Now that I'm back to where I want to be in terms of colour, I feel like the rest of the room will come together much easier. 

The next time I post about our bedroom, we will be moved in....praise the LORD! Last night, we got the curtain rail brackets hung, and we are hoping to be back "home" tomorrow.

What's your process for choosing a paint colour? Have you ever suffered from painter's remorse and had to re-paint a room?