Help Wanted (Pay Sucks)

I need your help. Again.

It's curious to see which posts generate the most comments on my (or any, for that matter) blog. I don't necessarily write just to receive comments, but comments are great for knowing if what I'm writing means jack-sh*t anything to anyone. In looking upon my blogger dashboard, I see that the most comments I've ever received on a post is 16 - on the post where I asked for living room lay-out advice. Wild, huh?

There are many possible explanations for this, my favorite assumption being that commenting on whether or not I should rearrange my living room furniture, into something as daring as an angle, is safe. No one is going to get flamed for her opinion. No one will have to justify her answer. It's a chance to say, "Hey! I'm here too!" without needing to elaborate. And heck, that was possibly the only post where I explicitly asked for your opinion. (I asked for help with my shoe addiction, but apparently no one saw the seriousness of that issue. Only Rob. And our bank account.) Maybe I should ask more often.

So, since you all did such a great job at telling me exactly what I wanted to hear helping me decide about the living room, I have another decorating predicament. Are you ready? Got your best Martha Stewart goin' on? Have your inner interior decorator at the ready? Your color palette eyes open wide? Your virtual bib overalls on? Your - ok, you get the point.

I need help choosing a paint color for my bathroom. (I know! The challenge that is my life.)

You may recall that my bathroom is, well, pretty bare.



Now - here's part of the dilemma. I like bare. That's why I chose an all-neutral house to begin with. Soft, light cut-loop berber carpet. Creamy walls. Honey-maple cabinets. Cocoa-colored ceramic tile. It's very warm. It's very cozy. It's very spare.

It's also very blah.

Hence the purple wall insanity. When I decided to go color, I decided to go COLOR.

Purple walls. Attached to creamy green walls. Attached to terra-cotta sienna-ish walls. Flanking a dusty purple-ish-tan-ish wall. And then I stopped. I got tired of painting. (So tired that every wall in my living room is painted except one. I simply puttered out and ran out of color ideas. And if I'd stop pointing it out, I doubt anyone would notice. Or care.)

So the bathroom, among others, remains bare. The original color. And I don't know what color to paint it. I don't want it to be too dark.

As there are no windows in there.

I don't want it to be too bright or intense.

As no one wants to have to squint or scream, "My eyes! My eyes!" when they're trying to do their bidness. Ahem.

And I don't want it to be cheesy or pukey or haughty or gaudy. Or boring. Or manic.

It should be a simple task, really. If I weren't so d*mn difficult to please.

But the place desperately needs a serious color overhaul. Seriously. Seriously soon. And I figure with winter coming, and nothing better to do (says the grrrl who hasn't even thought about Christmas yet), what better time to work on a long-overdue home-improvement project that's been on the hope-to-do list for, oh, 11-1/2 years.

Here are the colors in the shower curtain, which I'm too cheap to replace by the way.

A somewhat-retro, canvas-ish collection of dusty blue, olive green, red, and tanish/grayish stripes. I like it for its simplicity. (There's that theme again.)

And remember, I need it to be soothing in there. (Ahem.) Zen-like. Pleasing. Cozy.

Any suggestions?

And while we're discussing my bathroom habits aura-of-choice, let me tell you that this room sometimes serves other purposes.

As a playground, for example.

And even a tv room at times.

So feel free to take that into consideration. :-)