It was just yesterday that I shared with you our ‘big item’ to-do list for the new apartment. The first projects that we’re going to tackle will likely include painting.  It’s hard to buy new rugs, furniture and accessories when you haven’t settled on a wall color, right?

First up on our new apartment to-do list is painting the living room walls. The landlord didn’t paint the living room after the old tenant moved out and while the color isn’t stark white, it’s not exactly warm and inviting.  It’s a oddly pink, peachy, beige that barely stands apart from the white trim.  I hate it.

So now we have the challenge of picking the perfect neutral for our oversized living room.  I want something in the tan-beige-sand-coffee-gray family.  We’re also trying to match the piping on our couch (kindly donated to us by the boyfriend’s mother).

I’m stuck.  Terribly, absolutely stuck.  I’m queen of picking colors that I think look great on a swatch but are far too overpowering and dark when on the walls.  I’m also queen of not really giving painting projects the time they deserve. I never buy samples.  I never test out or compare colors by painting small squares all over the room.  At most, I may tape up a paint swatch to the wall for a day or two.

In the end.  I normally do something similar to closing my eyes and waving my finger and pointing aimlessly at one of the colors.  Yup.  That’s how thorough and careful I am.

Here’s where my head’s at so far:

Online, I liked the Cape May Cobblestone most.  However, looking at it next to the others makes it glaringly obvious just how dark it might be.  It also is also noticeably darker than the piping of our couch, and it’s even getting close e to the actual color of the couch.  Not what I want.

And while I love Benjamin Moore’s Moonshine in all of Young House Love’s rooms, it may be a tad too light for our living room.   This leaves me somewhere between Popular Gray and Balanced Beige. Balanced Beige is a bit too… tan, and I’m afraid Popular Gray just won’t pop.

So did I just talk through all of my problems?  Perhaps.  And guess what? I learned about Sherwin William’s Versatile Gray in the mall because it’s the color on the walls at our Banana Republic.  If they think the color makes the cut, well I guess it must be a good color.