Try It, You Might Like It

If you ever want to ensure that I don't try something you have on offer, say these magic words, "Try it, you might like it."

I may not always have a firm grasp on what I do like, but I have always been certain of what I do not like. For example, let's take a look at food. Since birth (probably since conception, really) there has been nothing that can clamp my jaws tighter nor make me dig deeper with my exceptionally stubborn twin heels of refusal and denial than those magic, dreaded words: Try it. No, I'm not going to try it. The appearance, the smell do not appeal to me. The dish contains items that I hate and/or make me ill. I'm not going to try it and you can't make me. (Are you having flashbacks, Mum?)

Then there's those menacing entreaties uttered by devotees: Try it, you'll love it. I know those who entreat are well-meaning and eager to share their passion and spread the love. But take it from a life-long, decisively stubborn mule; the more well-meaning and impassioned your entreaty, the more menacing it is to the entreated who is forced to repeatedly decline your offers. The more you insist I try your passion, the more entrenched I will become in my refusal. I can't say if this is human nature, but it is my nature.

With this as background, I am surprised at myself for embracing a couple of trials in the ongoing home renovations. 

Tester pots of paint. Completely innocuous, right? Somehow, I have never embraced the half-pint, $3.00 paint sample (are you surprised?). I don't need to try a little paint on the wall to know whether or not I will like it. All I need are the free sample strips and I can tell what will work and what won't. 

Until now. 

The entry, stairway to the second floor, and upstairs hallway are narrow, dark, and plagued with about 7 million distinctly different (dim) lighting conditions. These walls are killing me a challenge. I thought I would love the grey paint and that it would tie the whole house palette together. Ugh. It just looks dirty. Then I thought I would love the bright, grass green. Nope. On these walls it looks dark and dull. I'll admit it, I'm glad I only bought a half-pint of each color to test rather than jumped in and slapped up 2 gallons.

With these failures, I'm now looking for color inspiration everywhere. And I just may have landed on the perfect palette thanks to the backyard robin.

I'm thinking two different tints of robin's egg blue; deeper for the entry, paler for the stairway and upstairs hall. Now all I need is a couple more tester pots.

Testing paint in the hallway has freed me to test other painting ideas. We had planned to put up white chair rail between the upper and lower colors on the kitchen walls. We may still do so, but I've had this photo niggling the back of mind for the last 6 months, taped as it is to the wall outside the half-bath. (I tore it out of some long gone catalog or other, maybe Pottery Barn?)

I really like this wall treatment, so why not feature it in a room larger than the miniature half-bath? I've got no good answer to that question, so I decided to try it in the kitchen. Hear that? TRY IT! I've got the lower green stripe painted and will paint the upper blue stripe tomorrow. But rather than paint the entire kitchen this way, I've only done one small section of wall so we can see if we like it better than the intended chair rail. 

There may just be something in this whole "try it, you might like it" concept. However, I guarantee I will never extend this liberated view to food. It's not going to happen. (And for the record, I have never understood nor embraced the expression, "never say never.")