I hate choosing paint colors. I think it's the hardest part of design. I've had a lot of people email for paint color recommendations and I always tell them that paint looks different in every space and in different light and at different times of the day. It's really a crap shoot and on my bachelor pad gamble I did ok but I wasn't perfect. The painters started yesterday and I could already tell that Horizon (OC-53) from Benjamin Moore was going to be too light in the bedroom. Then today I stopped by and realized that perhaps Collingwood (OC-28) might also be a little too light but Middlebury Brown (HC-68) in the entry looked amazing. The bathroom in White Ice (OC-58) looked fine, as did the kitchen in White Dove (OC-17).
It was decided that we had to go darker in the bedroom so I spent most of my Saturday at the Janovic Plaza/Benjamin Moore Paint store where I am on a first name basis with my helpful salesperson Shawn. I picked out three colors that I had made up in quart sizes to try on the wall and Smoke (2122-40) was declared the winner. It works very well with the other colors so there will be a nice flow through out the space. Luckily, the painter said he would repaint the bedroom for a reasonable rate so it didn't turn out too bad in the end.
The moral of my story is that everyone makes mistakes with paint. It's not the end of the world but mistakes do cost money so it's sometimes best to try the sample pots or have quart sizes made up first. This probably also means that people will stop asking me for paint advice which might not actually be a bad thing!
