Break on through

I've been having some difficulty decorating my house. Well, really I suppose the difficulty lies in getting motivated to start such a long process -- and it's really left me wondering whether I'm a commitmentphobe. I'm just scared to buy something and find out, upon consideration, that it was the wrong thing.

I decided a week or so ago that I absolutely needed to get things in gear. In fit of OCD, I ran to Lowes and collected one of ever single paint sample booklet they had. If you've ever perused paint samples at Lowes, you're familiar with these booklets, organized by color family, and featuring monochramatic, coordinating, and other color schemes. Not wanting to look like a crazy bag lady, I stashed the 4-inch stack of booklets in my purse as I headed for the door.

It was at this point I noticed that each of the booklets were barcoded. This, of course, left me to consider whether I was committing an act of theivery or simply taking what was rightfully mine. As I approached the exit, I decided on the latter, for no other reason save that it made me feel better about myself.

I arrived home at 8:30 and laid all the booklets on my living room floor before me. Scissors in hand, I clipped each individual one-by-two-inch sample, arranging them in an imprompteau color wheel before me. I grabbed a few reprentative samples and ran around the house trying to match them to things. I matched my tile, my bedspread, my cabinets, my couch, my houseplants -- everything. I searched through the remaining pile, finding coordinating colors for each of my selections. I was in a zen state, at one with my furniture.

And 4 hours later, I had it -- a color palette that I would use to find coordinating accessories and furniture for each of my rooms. One piece of paper with three individual palettes, one for each room. Shocked, I realized that each would-be room featured different shades of the same 3 colors: red, yellow, and green.

Am I really in that much of a rut?? I blame the couch that my mother bought when I was 10, a plaid in those same colors on a field of off-white. I swear it's imprinted on my retinas to this day. Or maybe the various accidents I've been in have cultivated in me an obsession with traffic lights?

Anyway, I've heard that it's a good design technique to weave the same colors from room to room in a house. It's supposed to lend a sense of cohesion to the decor...or something else that sounds equally based in reality. I'm going to adopt that philosophy as justification for my actions, and press on. Wish me luck!