Things I suck at (or, things at which I suck for all you grammar nerds)

I cannot choose colors. There's a reason why I always wear jeans - it's because everything matches!

I went to Sherwin Williams today and got paint for the living room and kitchen. I got "willow tree" for the kitchen walls, "silvermist" for the living room walls, and "portrait tone" for the trim.

I would link to SW's color visualizer so that you could see this combination, but you have to look them up for yourself and apply them to a room. Go on, I'll wait.

So, I really like the "portrait tone" on the backsplash, near the cabinets (our cabinets are a dark walnutish color). It looks super. And the tile we have is going to tie it all together, if we ever get it installed, but I think I hate the "portrait tone" (which turned out a lot more orange than expected) on the trim around the doors.

I wanted something bold. I wanted something in the "Arts & Crafts" style. I wanted something eye catching and interesting, and most of all, not the off-white that we've lived with for the last 5 years while I've tried to pick a color (yes, it has taken me 5 years to pick a paint color. I need help). I managed to find a color that was all of those things, but it's so wrong on one side of the room...

The good news is that my painting skills have vastly improved since my last attempt at painting a room. Mom would be proud of the way I cut in the ceilings without tape! They look great. Except for the color. I'm pretty sure the color sucks.

It's better than it was. The green ("willow tree") is a big improvement. I just really, really need help with the trim. Thoughts?

Here's the Before:


And here's the After:


Doesn't the "portrait tone" look great there? It really warms it up and brightens it up, not to mention the fact that it's going to be a lot easier to keep clean. Obviously we didn't get all the way around with the green ("willow tree") - we had some patching to do, so we're going to finish it tomorrow.

But here's the other side of the room:


Note the color schizophrenia going on on the right there - what color room is this? Green? Orange? Blue? White? Who knows? Let's just slap all of those up there...

What do I need to do? Does anyone think that painting the door the orangey color would help? Or is that just going to make it worse? We had planned to go with the "portrait tone" orangey thing on all the trim in the living room and the dining room, but you know what, I'm not going to do all that work if it is going to look hideous.

Maybe I'll just paint the baseboards the same color as the walls, and Sherwin Williams and their perfect paint chips with three "coordinating" colors can see me in hell. I don't know. Bring your opinions and your color fans that you've liberated from paint stores (Mom) with you tomorrow.