Sweatin' the Small Stuff.

I thought this whole redecorating thing was supposed to be easy. OK, not easy- but easier than this!

When I first bought the house I had an idea of what I wanted to do: I knew I needed- needed- to paint the walls (does butter cream yellow strike you as my color?), paint my cabinets, replace the carpet and change out the lighting. But what I didn't have was the exact paint colors, the flooring, or any lights picked out. Those all just seemed like minor details. Right, minor.

For those of you who saw my house before the painters stormed in, you'd know how many samples I went through to find the right color. There were painted patches all over almost every wall in the house. Browns and blues downstairs, teals on the stairs, blues on the kitchen cabinets, browns on the guest bathroom cabinets, blues on the guest bathroom walls, yellows on the guest bedroom walls, and grays on the master bathroom walls and cabinets. I kept the lady at Home Depot busy with all my requests for samples (I talked to her so much about the house, I almost have the urge to invite her over to see the finished product when all is said and done). I sat with the colors on my walls for months, hemming and hawing over the best combo. Man, I hope I got it right because I can't take doing this again.

It's the same story for the flooring. I must have looked through at least 30 floor samples before finding something I liked. Carpet, tile, hardwood, laminate, engineered wood-- I looked at them all. But the problem with finding the right flooring material, was that I wanted it to compliment the colors of the walls and cabinets! If I couldn't decide on the walls, how was I supposed to decide on the floor? My head still hurts thinking about it.

After the main pieces of the walls, cabinets and floors came the finishing touches. The lighting in the house was just not doing it for me either. Dangling beads on shades on my dining room chandelier, simple recessed lighting in the kitchen, and trying-too-hard-to-be-modern-lighting in my bathrooms. None of these were my style. You'd think the smaller stuff would be easier to complete. Yet, picking out the lighting has proven to be the most difficult part of all of this. I've made the final call on the paint colors, the flooring, the decor... basically everything else but the lighting. And I think I might know why...

There are just too many choices. There are by far more lighting options than there are paint swatches in the world (it really seems like that). On top of that there are so many that I really, really, really like.

I stood at Lowe's recently looking at all these options for my bathroom. It was so stressful, like an interrogation: lights beating down on me, men in uniforms asking me if I wanted to pick one out of the line up, palms sweating, knowing that if I made the wrong decision my mistake would be staring me in the face every time I flipped the switch. But, a decision had to be made, so I pulled the trigger. I just hope I hit the target.