Not-so-Forceful Orange

Forceful Orange turned out to be less forceful than I had expected and more like a really cheerful yellow. Think Caution Sign Yellow or Sunflower Yellow or Inside of a Perfectly Ripe Peach Yellow.

So much for all the thought that went into choosing Forceful Orange, right? And the hours on Pinterest finding inspiring orange doors?

Here is what happened. I called our closest Sherwin-Williams store to order a quart of Forceful Orange. They were having a 40% off anniversary sale. I make it a point to buy good paint when it is on sale because, frankly, at $22/quart I don't get too excited about buying full-price paint. Unfortunately, my store was out of the vivid yellow base that they need to mix Forceful Orange. So I called another store. The next store had one quart of vivid yellow base. Whew. So I ordered my paint (and they honored the 40% off from the other store, yay!).

I went to pick up my paint and the girl hadn't had a chance to mix it, but she had set aside my vivid yellow base. I watched as she opened up the quart and put it under the machine that squirts out the colorants.

Then we both gasped in horror. The machine burped. Or spit up a little. Red colorant went everywhere except into the quart of paint. The last quart of paint. The quart of paint around which I had planned my whole weekend. Apparently the new no-VOC colorants dry out easily and clog the dispenser. Sherwin-Williams is trying to fix the problem, but in the meantime this burping seems to be happening pretty regularly. Hooray for no-VOC colorants, though -- to me, the hassle is worth the lower VOC paint.

So the sweet Sherwin-Williams employee, whose shoulders drooped as much as mine did when she saw the colorant go everywhere, cleaned up the mess and tried to get as much colorant as possible into the paint. Then she added a bit more and mixed it up. Once she was done adding colorant and mixing and testing and adding more and mixing and testing some more, it seemed to be a perfect match.

But somehow the paint, once it was on my door, didn't match the sample.

I'm going to chalk this one up to happy accidents, though. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. Even if it is...yellow.

Here's a little before and after for you:

And from farther back so you can see the whole house (sorry, the before was taken a few years ago -- we've lost a few trees and gained a few perennials in the meantime):

Since I think this is the first time I've officially talked about the front of our house on this blog, I'm going to show you a before-before, also. As in, this is what the house looked like when I made an offer on it:

I know, right? Wow. It's the same gravel in the driveway, since the previous owners had just laid it that spring (oh how I wish it weren't pink). It's the same roof (which we loooove!). It's the same deck but it's been stained to match the new siding and paint. Other than that, it pretty much looks like a different house, am I right? Crazy.

And, just so you know, we didn't purposely get rid of those Aspens in front of the house. Aspens seem to have a relatively short life span and most of ours started dying around the time we moved in. I swear I didn't purposely kill them. The good news is we've got a few volunteers popping up in the front yard and of those few, one or two seem to be making it despite the deer and drought.

So, there you go. What was meant to be a Forceful Orange door is now a Cheerful Yellow door but, maybe because it's such a happy color, I am absolutely fine with it. I'm not sure how long I'll love living with a yellow door (it is by far the brightest door in our neighborhood), but for now I love the punch and character it adds to our otherwise boring, ho-hum house.