Just because you have 2 favorite colors...

...does not mean you should put them together. I mean, I love sage and purple together, and really wanted my bedroom to reflect that. Unfortunately, I didn't know about accent colors and how to use them creatively. I thought "if I like it, I'm going to drown in it." Bad idea.

This is the story:

I was so excited to do a room from scratch! I never had a completely blank canvas before. I tried to pretend I was a real designer. (yes, I'm a dork!)
The first thing I did was run to the carpet store. My choice was inspired by the gorgeous Laura Ashley carpet my mom has in her bedroom. So I copied her, just in a different color.

When you go from matted, ORANGE shag carpet to this, you just have to enjoy with your piggies:
We had done the smart thing and painted the walls our dusky purple color before the rug went down, but what we didn't count on was :
1. the windows were bare at the time, letting in some nice, bright light -making the paint color look pretty light.
2. we were dead tired and living in a single bedroom at my mother's while we got the house ready before moving in. My husband worked 10 hour days, came here and worked till midnight. I worked here during the day, went to my part-time job at the bank and came back here to finish up the night with him. We had about as much common sense as zombies.
"that look good....?"
"uuuungh."

Needless to say, we ended up with a cave-like effect that depresses me on a daily basis. I love a light, bright but cozy room. What the hell was I thinking? I was sleeping inside a giant grape every night. The pictures here don't do it justice. In real life, it's so gloomy.
So it's been almost 3 years of other commitments, projects, and improvements and we're ready to make another go of it.

On a recent trip to Home Depot, I cleaned them out of practically all their paint swatches. I love these little cards. Anything that shows different shades of the same color is so calming to me. (I get the same feeling shopping for scrapbooking paper).

Just taping them to my walls made me happy.
I have asked the opinion of everyone except the UPS man (ok, I thought for a split second about inviting him in to take a look) and I think we finally have a winner after a week of observing the differences on the colors depending on the time of day, position of the sun through the window, lamp light, etc. I will keep it a surprise until the finished result, but I can tell you it's not any of the colors below. Watch for updates!

Oh!! Before I go, what the hell should I do with this area? I need the storage, but I've seriously had that bureau since I was an infant...maybe do a built-in? I'd love to hear your ideas!!