This is my palette
The accent wall will get the purple lotus, the other three walls the mauve blush, trim is iced mauve, and oyster is the ceiling and master bath.
This would have taken me agonizing weeks alone. Forget not the first version of the kitchen accent wall. Betsie nailed the basic choices from the paint deck in 2 minutes, we discussed for an hour, consulted Google about which wall should be the accent wall, and she advised not leaving the master bath yellow.
Here are those colors in paint strips against the Georgia O’Keefe prints, which will hang on the accent wall.
I’ve painted a lot of things purple in my day. This is what I’ve learned:
Go Big or Go Home. If you chicken out at the last second and buy a lighter shade, you’re going to end up with a nursery room. I helped found a co-op called the Audre Lorde House Cooperative. It took three trips to the paint store buying progressively darker gallons of paint to get what looked right on the front door.
And! you’re never too old to fulfill your 10-year-old-self fantasies.
This is Alexandra Romanov II of Russia. Yup, the one with all the dirty laundry with Rasputin. I was fascinated with the story of her family. She had a Mauve Boudoir where she hid from everyone, locked in a deep depression for most of her adult life. She spent her days writing letters, relaxing in style, propped up on white pillows on a chaise lounge surrounded by an unwholesome amount of bric-a-brac. Y’know, gold picture frames. Faberge Easter eggs with little carriages in them. Pictures of her grandmother, Queen Victoria. Empress-level knick-knacks. Her biographers termed it: The most famous room in Europe.
Oooooh, I wanted one sooooo bad. In my version, there was a portal in the wall by the lounge that opened up and served warm chocolate chip cookies.
My father and his wife painted my childhood bedroom mauve (although I think I remember my step-mother saying something along the lines of “I saw that gallon of mauve paint and we adjusted it a little”). The room was FANTASTIC. But I only got to enjoy it for two weeks one summer before they sold the house.
When Betsie and I began discussing paint colors, I mentioned my secret color: Mauve. “That’s basically brown. You know that, right?” she said. “But… but… I think of it as PLUM!” I wailed. She assured me that I was welcome to think whatever I liked, but mauve is not plum.
Betsie’s gig is color and fabric. And with her help, I have a grown-up-woman-purple accent wall coming my way. With MAUVE shouting at me from every other corner. The painter will be ready for us in about a week.
Oh, the places I’m going in life…
Plum Librarian LLC 
Thank goodness for Betsy! I have four paint color cards taped to my Pepto-Bismol pink bathroom wall. This is narrowed down from the original 10 or so that I brought home from the paint store ABOUT FIVE YEARS AGO! And I still can’t make up my mind which one I like best. They are all shades of aqua because, well, water! No real possibility to use two colors, because the room is tiny, so one color is the only sensible way to go. I’m excited for you to have reached this level of progress on your makeover. The finish line is in sight!
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Delightful!
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