Fifty Shades of Beige

Thursday, March 21, 2013 – Fifty Shades of Beige

Guess who’s on the ladder.  It isn’t me, and it isn’t Matt or Marshall, so it must be Elliott.  I don’t approve of this, but there’s no stopping him!  He was taping in preparation for painting. 

Little by little, the pink bathroom is taking on a new identity.  A couple of days ago, a bathroom genie appeared at our house and worked his wizardry on our pink tub and tile, transforming them to a gleaming white.  Last weekend, under Elliott’s supervision, Matt and Marshall painted the walls and ceiling.  My contribution was choosing the paint color, which wasn’t an easy job.  This was the first time we’ve painted a room any color other than pure white, and given the multitude of choices, I was overwhelmed.  I knew I wanted something neutral, and not too dark.  To coordinate with the floor tile we’d chosen, I thought a pale beige would look nice.  Looking at the color charts just made me more confused.  There was pinky beige, grayish beige, greenish beige, yellowish beige, rusty beige, and more, ranging from the very palest shades to deeper values.  Finally, I settled on a light taupe color called Pale Oak, or some such thing.  I wondered if I was making a huge mistake, but I reminded myself that we could always paint over it, if necessary.  In fact, it turned out to be very subtle, with just enough color to contrast nicely with the white of the tile.  Regardless of the color change, we’ll continue to refer to this bathroom as “the pink bathroom.”  Elliott and I agreed that it sounds a lot better than "the beige bathroom" or “the taupe bathroom.”