$100 Room Challenge: Best Paint Story Ever

You guys!!! You’re never gonna believe what happened for this $100 Room Challenge! Remember last week? I was trying to decide on a paint choice? I shared some pictures of beautiful rooms with paints I loved, but I was worried the colors would, perhaps, clash with the beige carpet and wood tones? Well, my friend Sharon (blogger at Pretty Practical Home), is actually starting her own interior decorating business, and pointed out that the grays I chose had “cool” undertones, and suggested Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray as an alternative. (You can see her comment in last week’s post.) So, the next day, I headed out to my local Sherwin Williams store and got a couple paint samples (including Agreeable Gray.) Some of you may have seen the array on Instagram if you’re following over there.

I laid the samples out on the carpet…

… and up against the baseboards…

Honestly, my favorite was Anew Gray, but I liked 3 out of the 5 samples. I decided to take a quick trip to our local environmental center where they have free paint… if you can find a color you like. I haven’t had a ton of luck, but it never hurts to check, right? I headed over to the 5 gallon buckets and started searching, comparing my paint swatches to the colors on the buckets, and I kid you not, the very last bucket I saw was this one:

Seriously??? Agreeable Gray??? I wouldn’t have believed it myself, except, it actually happened to me. I grabbed that bucket and walked out with FREE paint. Now, the thing about recycling centers is that this paint is already used, so I only have about 1 1/2 gallons of this stuff. According to the Sherwin William paint calculator, I was going to need 1.2 gallons to cover my walls. I have none to spare, so I bought some primer to cover the walls, and hopefully after that application, I can get by with one coat of the paint (which is also a paint/primer in one). I honestly expected to be spending at least half my budget on paint, and now I (hopefully) won’t have to.