Painting when you don't really LOVE the colour - for that room

We've been in this house coming up on 4 years.  I think that entire time I've had paint chips taped to the dining room walls along with actual test spots from probably 15 different test colours.  Occasionally I'd take the chips down and throw them away and then prime over the test spots.  We never could find a colour to agree on.  After a year or so, one of the corners started to crack (not from all the painting..just from the house coming up on 20 years old) so that needed scraping out and then taping & mudding.  Which took forever because I hate drywall stuff, as I may have mentioned before ;)


The dining room table eventually became Legoland and the room completed its decline to blah. We have two 'events' coming up which really lit a fire under my butt for getting this room SEMI presentable -  LB wants to have a Lego party at home for his 5th birthday, and March is my month to host bookclub.  So I had a spare gallon of paint and said what the hell it's gotta be better than what's there!

(I took this picture after I'd already started paint prepping - there were 2 pictures on that left-hand wall)

These two are during prep -

The corner shown with the white paint is where I needed to re-tape and re-mud from chair-rail to crown moulding.  I did an ok job for my first time :)  There's definitely a few flaws, but nothing that is glaring.  I left the french cleat up on the wall rather than take it down, fill the holes, re-drill, etc.  Seemed crazy to not just leave it!

This side just shows some of the primered over spots I'd mentioned.  Plus, a helpful tip - leave a splodge of blue tape wherever you'd done any repair, so you can find them all when it comes time to sand & prime them.

Here's the afters (waiting till the weekend for the walls to cure enough to hang things again)!  I changed the orientation of the table, and removed the old manky rug (I'd love a giant zebra-print one in there, actually)  The two pictures will go on that small wall to the right of the window, and I'm making a triptych I found on Pinterest for the long bare wall.  The mirror will obviously go back where it was.  The paint colour is Behr's Wheat Bread which seems a nice cross between grey and beige, and is what we used in the adjoining living room. I'd previously painted below the chair rail Behr's White Truffle to cover up about another 6 test spots (also the colour of the upstairs hall, and the 4 first-floor columns).  I'm fine with the curtains for now, but I'd love to get a colourful print in there!