For me, choosing a color is a bit easier because I have access to a multitude of idea books and color swatches. I often get the urge to change a room color when I see a color scheme I like in a trade magazine or home decorating magazine and every so often I am even inspired by the color of a simple object…such as a piece of beach glass.

When helping customers pick a paint color I like to simplify it by asking them two basic questions:

What is your favorite color and what colors typically makes you feel good?

Now, homeowners and designers alike can use Glidden’s MyColortopia which helps take the guess work out of trying to choose the perfect paint color!

Take the quiz below and find out what colors fit you and your lifestyle!

The views provided in this review are the personal views of Nifty Thrifty Girl and are not the views of AkzoNobel or any other company. I received compensation in return for this article.

It will do…for now. The fun thing about canvas is that it can be reworked and reused over and over!

I bought this horrendous plastic faux gold mirror last month at a thrift store for $6.99.

I originally thought I would paint it a lovely shade of lime green…or perhaps hot pink…but opted to use it at the head of the stairs…

…and figured white would be best.

My child complains that the hallway now looks like a “baby’s room”, but I’m happy with it…for now. That’s the joy of paint, it can be changed in a few short hours!

This year, however, because I am trying to purge I decided I would avoid looking. Ha. When I took my dogs out for a walk early on the first ‘trash’ day they stopped at a roadside pile and sniffed. And what to my wondering eyes did appear…but two vintage basket weave metal patio chairs. I gazed at them, pondered, shrugged them off and decided to go on my way. Hours later I could not stop thinking about them! So…I went back and they must have been meant to be mine because they were still there.

Here is their before and after:

After much scraping, metal brushing, rust removal, priming and painting, I have a lovely pair of pink patio chairs!

And my bedroom…

I adore this color…it is so soothing and classic. Ok, no more pictures of gray walls, I promise – unless, of course, I decide to paint another room this color!

My living room walls have been Martha Stewart’s Hot Chocolate (once upon a time when her paint was available at Kmart) with two accent walls in Wal-Mart’s American Elm, for thirteen years. Far too long to stick with the same color, in my opinion.

I knew I wanted to go with a gray for the living room but, oy, there are oh-so-many to choose from. I love Benjamin Moore’s Chelsea Gray but was afraid it would be too dark. I finally settled with BM’s Galveston Gray, but because I’m so thrifty and refuse to spend an excessive amount of money on paint I pulled out my Wal-Mart ColorPlace fan deck (I’ve heard that Sherwin Williams makes this paint for Wal-Mart and I’ve used it in several rooms in my home without hesitation). Fortunately, (and this rarely happens) Wal-Mart’s Ashland gray was pretty darn close to BM’s Galveston Gray. Twenty six dollars and four hours later…I’m in love with the new living room color!

Cutting in with Ashland gray

Cutting in with Ashland gray, covering American Elm & Hot Chocolate

Love this color!

Pardon the mess, now I need to get my living room back in order and take some proper pictures. Looks like I’ll have plenty of time to do that with this continued humidity.

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As a professional painter I have the luxury of seeing a plethora of colors in each house I”m working in. That makes it so much easier for me to pick and choose colors for my own rooms. I get to spend several days with the new color of someone else’s walls and even though colors look very different in different settings I can get a ‘feel’ for the color I’m working with. I was working in a friend’s house and she chose a lovely shade for her den and kitchen- Benjamin Moore’s Texas Leather (also a featured color in the Pottery Barn catalog). I never would have picked this particular color for my own house, but the more I was around that color, the more I fell in love with it. So, my dining room is now that color! My apologies for the barren walls…I still don’t have my dining room properly put together yet:

In my house the color has more of a green hue. In my friend’s house it had more of a brown hue. I love the white trim and my antique white cupboard against the lush walls.

I also fell in love with another Pottery Barn color (Pine Cone Brown) and decided to paint my bedroom walls. My bedroom has had white walls for 12 years! It was a big change for me but I am so glad I did it. I’m in love with this color. It makes the room so restful and cozy.

I painted the dresser I purchased at an estate sale (for $18!!) white

And one more big change…a kitchen remodel. It’s only a partial kitchen remodel. I have a mishmash of different cupboards in my kitchen – the old built in ones that go from floor to ceiling (which I love) and the newer not-so-great ones that I will have to live with until I win the lottery. I’m adding another set of base cabinets and shelving on one end of the kitchen, getting new countetops, a new sink, and a new stove. I’ll be posting before and after pictures of the progress. It’s going slowly but it will be well worth it when it’s done!

And with crazy boys like these…

who like to sleep with me and roll around in the bed, it’s a great deal easier to wash a duvet than it is a bulky comforter.

Some of my favorite places to shop for duvets:

Garnet Hill

Pottery Barn (I love you PB, but sometimes you are just too expensive and I can only shop your sales!)

Ikea

Target

I tend to buy most of my duvets on sale ($35-$50), that way I don’t feel too guilty when I amass a half dozen of them. I do, however, splurge once in a while when I find one I just can’t live without. Duvets are, indeed, a fun and inexpensive way for a quick change!

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When changing a room over I like to grab several paint swatches, tape them to the wall and ‘live’ with the colors for a bit before I make my decision. Well, my daughter had her own ideas and immediately fell in love with a lovely shade of blue from one of the swatches, so we went with it.

BEFORE – the PINK room

The pink gingham roman shades were removed from the windows, as well as the shutters to make way for new window treatments.

DURING – PINK to BLUE room

AFTER – the BLUE room

While shopping for paint I happened to pass by the fabric clearance rack and spotted this funky fabric that I knew my daughter would love…so I stitched up some panels. The blue fabric combined with the brown polka dots = oh, la, la! I had to persuade her into allowing me to use the brown polka dotted fabric. She insisted that it was ‘babyish’.

We scoured the stores for a bedding ensemble that would match the walls. It didn’t take long for my daughter to spot this set…and it looks perfect:

So, for approximately $80 (the majority of the money was spent on the bedding) I completely changed a room – in one weekend.

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