My Yellow Paint Color Mistake and Happy Ending

by A. Lenora
(Louisville, KY)

As a first time home owner I was very excited to escape from the boring white walls of my apartment, and to make my new-to-me, 46 year old house my own.

The first challenge was the fact that the prior owners had painted the entire house a horrible purple-chocolate mix color called "Creamy Chocolate" in a feeble attempt at neutral.

My second challenge was the fact that as a lifelong apartment dweller I had never picked a paint color, and now had to pick a color for every room in my three bedroom, 1 bath home.

At first everything was great, each room turned out just as I had envisioned it, except one, my living room. This is the room that greets everyone and I made the mistake of picking a deceptive color.

I wanted a golden khaki color, what I ended up with was a bright yellow color that was almost painful to look at. This color called "Jonquil" was purchased at Sherwin Williams where I bought all of my paint for the house.

I tried for almost a week to live with the color but each time I opened the door to my new home I could swear I heard the lyrics to let the sun shine in by the 5th dimension. It was just too much.

In an act of desperation, I returned back to Sherwin Williams and explained my dilemma. This time with the help of a friend and a friendly sales associate, I found a nice calm color that I could live with.

Allow me to introduce Compatible Cream or what I like to call the "Jonquil slayer".

This color was exactly what I was looking for. It is neutral but with a slight golden glow, it works well with my beige, chocolate, orange and green décor, and when I walk into my home I can now smile instead of squinting.

My best advice to others that want to avoid my mistake would be to take a friend who has painted often (or at least recently) with you, speak to the associate at the paint store, describe what affect you are going for so that they can offer guidance and if it’s still not what you wanted, take heart - it's only paint and is one of the few things in life that you can always do over.

Click here to share your paint color idea and see your name in lights!