Final pre-paint stages

Choosing paint colors was pretty tough, but I finally settled on colors for the bedroom and living room. For the living room, I bought three of those tester boards and painted them various shades of taupe and taped them to different walls. They're not kidding when they say to look at the paint samples on different surfaces in different lighting conditions. Those colors changed a LOT when you go from wall to wall, or lit to shadow. I picked out a medium grey for the window wall, and custom mixed a light grey for the other wall.

In the bedroom, I had to design around a pinky-orange carpet and dark wood bedframe. I wanted to keep it light since the room doesn't get much sunlight after noon. I didn't do the two-step sample-painting process for the bedroom, I just held the paint chips up to my face, used my imagination, and went with my gut. There were a couple of lighter yellows that would have been nice, but they seemed overbearingly yellow. I liked a light, desaturated yellow, the obnoxiously named "America's Heartland". I'm shooting for "bright and cheery" without a "YELLOW YELLOW YELLOW" feeling. I can always make it darker or richer later if I want to.

I also bought primer, trays, rollers, and a dropcloth. I borrowed spackle and need to go find some sandpaper and a stool, and then I'm getting started. I'm going to start low-commitment with primering the closet to get used to this whole process. This has been a huge mental block and I really just want to get it over with so I can finish moving in.