Choosing a paint color for the living room

The time had come to cover our "contractor beige" living room! We had decided awhile back that a lighter blue/grey "modern cottage" color was where we were headed. On a trip to Lowe's we picked up three Valspar paint samples and returned home to make our sample squares. We put the samples on three of the four walls and lived with them for a couple weeks.

Left: Pelican - Center: Autumn Fog - Right: Winter Flannel

We showed our friends and family and by the end of it we had a clear favorite; Autumn Fog!

Before picking up two gallons I looked online in hopes to find a discount. Well low and behold I found a free sample & $5 off coupon package at the Valspar website (see my post about that here).

A good Sunday afternoon spent and our walls we're Autumn Foggy. Along the way we found a ton of dents in the walls (gotta love old plaster walls). No worries though, we used DryDex to patch over and sand before painting. I don't think I've said it before but DryDex is some pretty awesome stuff. So easy to work with and so quick to dry. It's practically dummy proof because it goes on pink & turns white when its ready to sand/paint. Doesn't get much easier than that...

The Real Deal.

With my love for DryDex out of the way, stay tuned for the results later this week!

Valspar $5 Off Coupon & Free Sample

We've been busy deciding on a paint brand and paint color for our living room. A few weeks ago we picked out three Valspar samples at the nearby Lowe's and went home to test them out. The samples costs about $2.50 each (I can't remember exactly) and they give you enough (7.9 oz) to save for touch-up areas if you do decide to go with the same color.

After throwing our samples on the wall and living with them for a few days we had made our final decision (stay tuned for more on that in the days to come). However before returning to Lowe's to buy two gallons, I looked online to see if any Valspar discounts were on the market and surprise, Valspar is offering a Free Sample & $5 off coupon Package. I signed up and picked a sample from their Color Selector. Three days later I received a package at home with this!

The package included my free sample with matching paint square, a $5 off coupon, a packet of complimentary paint squares to go with my sample, small rollers (which will be great for painting furniture and finally plenty of marketing brochures. This was a very impressive freebie and strongly led me to going with Valspar.

As of right now it looks like the giveaway is still going on. Check it out here!