Our story so far: Analysis paralysis had descended upon the church renovation project, especially when it came to choosing paint colors.

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Way back in the autumn when I’d created my design template for the project, I’d chosen a limited palette of about eight colors to guide my choices, but anyone who’s considered painting their trim beige knows there are about a hundred different shades of beige from unbleached silk to khaki.

In any other house I’d owned, I (or my husband) painted every room a different color. Isn’t that what everyone does? But in every other house I’d owned, paint color was usually the most distinctive design feature of the room. In the church, I had all kinds of other distinctive features vying for attention—etched windows, high ceilings, a dramatic spiral stairway, original wood floors. I decided I didn’t need a bunch of different paint colors muddying up the canvas. As we approached the painting phase of renovation, I’d settled on creamy beige for the trim and medium gray for the walls. All the trim. And all the walls. I wanted to paint every room in the same colors to create a cohesive backdrop to everything else going on. Now I’m not sayin’ I didn’t vacillate about this decision. Of course I did. Especially when it came down to choosing which creamy beige and which medium gray.

A trio of girlfriends came to have a look at the church in person (oh, and catch up, too—we did talk about subjects other than the one that obsessed me). While they were there, I pulled the paint chips I had been pondering back at the rental house into the great room for the first time.

And I simultaneously realized that not only would I have to coordinate trim and wall colors with the ceiling color I already had, I would have to think about my kitchen cabinets (which came in two colors).

And my fireplace stone.

And the floor stain.

Yes, I confess I had been dreaming of creamy beiges and medium grays in the form of tiny paint chips in a vacuum far removed from the church. Probably not wise. As soon as I held my creamy beige up to the off-white kitchen cabinets, I realized my creamy beige was yellow.

Blech! Yellow was not in the design scheme. Oh, how narrow the line between creamy beige and yellow! (I will note, for the record, I was once an ardent fan of yellow. I painted the office in my last home yellow—even the ceiling!)

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Tomorrow: Time to pull out a paintbrush. See what transpires here.