All good struggles must come to an end...maybe

Good news! In the valiant search for just the right shade of mustard-colored paint for our family room, it's possible, just possible, that we may have found a usable color. Of course, it is also possible that I have run out of shades of mustard to look at, and am getting tired of waiting for the paint people to come up with new ones. It had gotten to the point that I would go into a paint store and say, "Just give me a pint of every color you have that's remotely related to gold or mustard. Have a truck deliver it. Here's my address. Thanks."

I base my optimism about the new color, Marblehead Gold, on the fact that when I opened the tester can I did not say, as I had with the previous twenty-six colors, "Ewwww." This is a very strong indicator of acceptableness.

Of course I say this with guarded optimism, as the paint has not yet been through Phase 93 of testing, which is to carry the painted sample of foam board everywhere in the room to pose it in various spots, under various types of lighting, and then bring in strangers off the street to get their opinion of it, etc.

In prehistoric times people did not, of course, have so many paint colors to choose from, because Home Depot had not yet been invented, but they did use natural colorings to adorn their dwellings. They also apparently used these colorings to adorn themselves. This is because they did not have poster board or foam board or anything else on which to test the colors they were thinking about using in their homes, so they painted samples on family members' arms, legs, noses, etc. -- whatever was handy -- preferably while the family member was asleep. Little Jimmy would go to school and the kids would snicker, "Hey, look, Jimmy's mom's must be trying out paint colors again. She gonna go with Dead Salmon or Mouse's Back?"

You may be wondering what kind of substances these "natural paints" were made from. Let's just say that I would stay away from Tyrian Purple. According to Wikipedia, this was a color made from snail mucus. Other colors in the pre-Behr days were made from parasites, or from the urine of cattle who had feasted only on mango leaves. The thing that amazes me is that women, who are normally very particular about these things, allowed these substances to be smeared all over their walls, on purpose.  

Today our colors are produced in a lab, although paint recipes are still a highly guarded secret. I personally would prefer to keep it that way. If I am putting snail mucus on my walls, I would rather not know.

Once the final testing phases of Marblehead Gold are complete, the challenge will be to wait patiently until the contractor comes to paint, which won't be a for a few weeks, after the floor is in, which gives me plenty of time to change my mind about Marblehead Gold, and to keep looking for an even better color...did someone say Dijon?