Don't Judge a Paint Color by Its First Coat

My next project in the house was to paint the dining room. Ryan and I are both earth signs (Taurus and Capricorn) so we tend to pick a lot of earthy things for the house: furniture, paint colors, etc. And when you have too many earth things in your house (as I learned from a feng shui book I read a while ago) the energy in the house starts to feel very heavy, making it hard to get motivated and be productive. So, I decided that I would add a little fire element to our home by painting the dining room a deep red. For those of you painting a dramatic color, like red, here is what I learned. Read this before you decide anything and I hope you will be better prepared!

We went to Home Depot and picked out the color. A nice, deep red. They mixed a gallon of it for us, and then he opened the lid for us to see the color: it was fuschia! I about had a heart attack! He then explained that with red paint, the color, when it's wet, is much different than when it dries, and it will be much darker when it's on the wall. He dried a sample for us, and I felt a little more at ease, but still really nervous. I knew that if it was a disaster, it would take a lot of work (and money!) to get it back to the way it was.

The next day, I painted the first coat onto the walls. And again, was horrified. I was using a brush, not a roller, to paint, and it looked like I had murdered a large animal. The color was blood red. When Ryan got home, he calmed me down and told me to paint another coat the next day. He said it would deepen with the next coat. I decided to trust his judgment, because there was no turning back at this point!

 So, the next day I held my breath (figuratively, of course) as I painted the second coat. And much to my surprise, Ryan was right. It did deepen with the second coat. It ended up needing three coats in all to get a smooth finish, but now I'm really happy with the results and grateful that I trusted my partners decision. :-) I also learned a very valuable lesson: don't judge a paint color by its first coat!