Ask Jo: The Paint Color Answered

Every so often blog readers ask questions that I think others might be interested in as well.  I answer them here on them here on the blog.  Today is one of those days….

After posting this picture from the redo on our spare bedroom (see the whole post here) we got this question from Linda:  “would like to know color of bedroom”

This one made me laugh….it isn’t  dumb question it’s just one I get all the time.  It’s so strange….and of course there is a story to go with it.
When we were finally to the point that we were painting the rooms in the house our budget had gone out the door.  We needed to get into the house and we needed to not spend any more money.  Well early on in the adventure (when I was very naive about the remodel process) I had picked a beautiful blue/gray color.  I loved it.  I bought one gallon not knowing how much paint I would need.  Fast forward a year later.  I am upset…we are out of money.  I am berating myself because now I’ve painted room after room after room in the house and I know I need another gallon.  Of course it was expensive paint so I needed more.  I knew I would need 2 gallons.

I didn’t want to spend a penny more at this point so this is what I did…
I went home to the farm house.  I gathered up whatever old paint cans we had there and would have to remove anyway when we moved and took them to the new house.  If there was a partial can and it looked blue-ish, I dumped it in a five gallon bucket along with the original can of paint I had.  I added just over a gallon’s worth of odds and ends paint.  I paid no mind at all whether the paint was flat or semi-gloss.  I just dumped it in.  Then I stirred and stirred and stirred until my arm was pooped.

Then I painted the bedroom.

I have no idea what color it is.

We end up showing the house to many people that come.  One of the comments we get the most is people asking the color of this bedroom.  It’s just odd to me because there really is no name…I feel like calling it poor man’s blue…but then it’s grayish too…so maybe it should be Poor Man’s Blue-Gray.

I also did the same thing with the other spare bedroom.

Again I had one can of paint.  It was caramel colored.  I had a similar can from the farm house kitchen.  I dumped that in then added some tans.  I ended up with this….

I love both of the colors of the bedrooms and am VERY happy with each.  I don’t regret mixing the colors and kinds of paint at all.  In fact I am happy.  I didn’t waste the old paint or leave it for a landfill and I saved our pocket book another $90.

I am sure some paint company has something that is out that is similar.  It’s a blue/gray….that’s about all I can say.