The Koala Bear on our Wall

I’m taking you back in time today…Flashback post #1: Paintin’ (first posted in March)

As we progress through our remodeling, more and more rooms are turning into blank slates of freshly primed drywall for us to leave our mark on. In other words, it’s again time to pick a paint color for another room – one of the guest bedrooms.

After spending weeks on the mind-numbing task of mudding drywall, I welcomed the opportunity to do something fun, like stare at paint samples (or “contestants” as I like to call them) until I could confidently declare a winner. Joey has shocked me by having a very definite opinion on a topic I never expected him to – decorating, which means I actually have to consult with him about paint colors.

So, I came to him with the winner of “Who Wants to Be A Guest Bedroom Paint Color?” to get his opinion. The lucky contestant was a lovely shade called Turtle Dove and the runner up was an equally beautiful color called Baked Brie (part of it’s appeal was that it’s named after a delicious cheese. I’m from Wisconsin – I find anything cheese-related quite alluring).Well, Joey vetoed both colors, but agreed to get paint samples and at least try them in the room.

So we went to Home Depot, picked out 6 colors to try as samples and then learned that those samples would cost $60 and we weren’t digging the idea of spending $60 bucks on paint we’d barely be using. We decided instead that we would just pick the paint color and go home with it.

Here’s how that went:
LIZ: Do you like this color?
JOEY: Liz, we can’t paint our entire house in various shades of green. I know you love it, but there can be no more green in our house.
LIZ: Fine. How ‘bout this one?
JOEY: We’re selling this house in 2 years. I really think we need neutral colors.
LIZ: But it’s a big room with lots of windows and sunlight. We can get away with an actual “color,” not just tan or white.
JOEY: Here’s one I like. It’s neutral, but has a little color.
LIZ: That’s so boring. I like this one.
JOEY: If we paint the room that color I will vomit every time I walk into it.
LIZ: Fine.Forty-five minutes later, we were so sick of looking at and arguing about paint colors that Joey was driven to make a bold statement.
JOEY: I can’t do this anymore. Just pick something. Anything. Just pick. Nothing green and something kind of neutral. The next color you touch is the one we’re getting.

I sensed he was daring me to pick a color on a whim. And I’m always ready to prove to my husband that I’ll call his bluff. I turned around. Reached out my hand. And picked a color. Koala Bear.

We exchanged an “are we really going to do this?” look. Joey, who routinely calls my bluffs right back, simply said, “Fine then. Koala Bear it is. Let’s go.”

I swallowed my urge to have a 5 minute conversation about the consequences of painting a room the color of an Australian marsupial and my intense desire to make a smart-ass comment like “How ‘bout we paint the trim Eucalyptus?”Before I knew it, we were walking out the door with one gallon of koala-bear-colored paint.

Here it is:I actually kinda like it. Oddly, it doesn’t make me think of koala bears when I look at it, nor does it make Joey vomit when walks into the room. So, I think we’re keeping it.

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