tile, doors and paint

Basement update: the tile in the bathroom is all finished (and covered). We kept it simple, figuring matching the upstairs was the best idea at this point- a no brainer, just had to find a tile that matched. The bathroom turned out pretty large and spacious, in the end... probably a good thing. The linen closet and extra cupboards will surely fill right up.

The walls are all textured and the doors have arrived and are being installed right now (yippee). As soon as the doors (and trim around the doors and windows) are in... I can paint. And that is what I've been waiting for all along, the step where I can finally get in there and be useful. I don't mind painting.  I hesitate to say 'I love to paint', which is what Steve O would claim... but I do love what fresh paint, (or in this case- any paint) can do for a room- change the whole look and feel, for a relatively small amount of money.

And so, I prepare for my upcoming duties...  I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the choices.  I'm used to thinking small scale, like one room at a time.  Not to mention the chaos of kids throwing in their picks for room colors. To tell you the truth, I really don't have much preference in color right now. I've been enjoying the white(ish) walls I've been sporting for about a year now, since I decided to paint over all my colors in my last house, bring it back to basic. I think I'll keep it pretty light, whatever I decide, it is a basement after all.

I hope I can: #1 make relatively few trips to the hardware store during the process, #2 pick out decent colors that we are all happy with.  After many re-paints in the past, because of horrid color choices based on tiny paint chips... I now religiously choose from Martha Stewart's color palette. Here are all the chips I've saved throughout the years, from when Martha paints were at Kmart, the Sherwin Williams and now Home Depot.  

So, here's my 2 cents about painting, and what I've learned (the hard way) over the years. Martha colors are real colors, tried and true, made by people and not randomly mixed by computers and slapped on cards. They will always look fantastic on the walls and not like they belong in a crayon box or on a tennis shoe. If you have to repaint, it will be by some fault of your own and not because of a bad color. How do you like that for bossy?