color obsession

It's true. I have a color obsession. Specifically when it comes to walls. Just look at my house for instance.

The dining room is a nice, neutral bamboo color...

With a red accent wall.

My living room is a vibrant green...

With the crazy wall.

My bedroom and bathroom are a nice peaceful periwinkle. The main bathroom boasts warm earth tones. Roommate Sarah made her room a beachy teal green and a former roommate painted his room a deep sky blue.

Basically, the ONLY rooms that have the original contract paint are the main entry way, the laundry room, and closets. That's it. Oh wait, I lied. The garage is white, too.

So you can only imagine what happened when I started spending more time in Dow's house.

EVERYTHING is white. (Please ignore the mess; Dow was going through resumes.)

And there are high ceilings, so it's tons of white. The place needs to be repainted. If you look closely in the top corner, you'll see some brownish streaks; the previous tenant was a smoker. Bleck. If I had left it up to Dow, he would just paint it white again and call it good.

But of course, this will just not fly.

Dow thought, that if he HAD to have color, he would like to have a sage green. But then he realized he'd have to change his curtains.

So, I tried to pull off of some of the paintings he already had that would still go with his curtains. (Do I sound like a HGTV show, yet? There might be a reason...)

Fortunately, we bought a couple of the sample colors, because I was hoping for something a little more...muddy gold...wheat-colored (bold, yet...neutral!)?

And really? Do you want that much "Squash" all over these huge, high walls?

Hmmm...maybe not. Rainbows and smiley faces are what you get when you leave a color fiend without adult supervision and a way too small paint brush for a way too big area.

So the color obsession has continued. I'm not sure which Dow dreaded more, being stuck with "Squash" or having to listen to me point to every. single. lovin'. color that I find in pictures, in paintings, on TV...in nature.

Here are the results of a walk we took. I think the intent was exercise, but who knew there were so many color possibilities out there!

And just to make matters worse, I've been looking through decoration magazines. (Cut me some slack! Grocery stores get really boring while you're waiting for someone to walk by so you can spritz them!) Not to mention a slew of design TV shows.

This boils down to the fact that I am back at square one and here are my newest choices.

Unfortunately, the picture is not showing true colors, but you get the gist.

The Disney center color is showing that I'm still leaning toward a squash like color, but it ain't happenin'.

I think I'm leaning to the bottom left - Cornbread.

Or the top left - Yellow Magnolia - but it doesn't go as well with the sage green curtains.

Ugh! So if you have any ideas - dark ceiling/light walls, light walls/white ceiling - let me know.

And heck! Feel free to vote on a color! I added a little voting button on the side. You have a week!