I have a vivid memory of a friend of mine, many years ago, lamenting her plain coloring and describing her eyes as being “poo-poo brown.”  This made a strong impression on me because we have the same color of eyes, and, up to that moment, I had always liked my eye color.  Now “poo-poo” is the first adjective I think of when describing my own eyes or hair.

“Lindsey,” you may be asking.  “I thought you said all you were thinking about these days was the new house.  Why the digression?”  Well, I’m actually leading up to a house-related point.  If you read the comments here, you already know that I decided that I want to pick a shade of brown to be the  main color that I use throughout the new house.  The collection of paint chips in my purse (and spilled all over the floorboards of my car) is ever growing, and I have yet to find a beautiful shade of brown that I feel confident with for my new walls.  The thing is, there’s a fine yet incredibly important difference between an appealing “chocolate” brown and a less-than-appetizing “poo-poo” brown.  It’s as elusive/essential as the line between “inexpensive” and “cheap” or “outgoing” and “obnoxious.”

Now, I’m not dealing with chocolate browns, but poo-poo is still part of my concern.  The problem is that all light browns have strong color undertones, and it’s hard to really see the true color until you have invested in paint and brushed it all over the wall.  Then it becomes all too apparent that the color that you thought would be tan is actually quite olive, and now it looks like a diaper disaster all over the wall.  Or, you get a tan on the wall and it turns out to be very pink, and then there’s no fixing it except to buy southwestern desert prints and decorate like a Motel 6. 

Tomorrow is D-Day.  I have to go back to Lowe’s and make my final decisions.  Fingers crossed!