The Trash of Two Men is One Gal's Treasure

I am sure you have all heard the saying "One man's trash is another man's treasure".  Well, such was the case with this poor gallon can of Sherwin- Williams Duration paint except the saying goes more like, "The trash of two men is one gal's treasure".  The gal being ME of course.

This paint has literally "been around" the block a number of times.  Okay.  Maybe not blocks.  More like houses.  Let me explain.  It's clean, I promise you. 


Here's the story.  This POOR gallon can of SW Duration paint started out in the home of a client of my brother-in-law (a contractor).  This client picked out this particular color for a room my BIL was painting in their house.  Unfortunately, the client didn't end up liking the color they picked.  So, instead of letting the paint go to waste and since the client didn't plan on using it anywhere else in their house my BIL brought it home.  Now who in their right mind would want to waste a FREE can of paint? Sherwin Williams Duration paint nonetheless?!  This paint is not cheap!


So, off to the 2nd house this paint went.  Now my BIL and sister tried using this paint in their place.  They started to put up some of the color on the wall in their family room.  And then...they stop.  The color was just not working for them.  They both agreed that they didn't like this particular color for their space.  What did they do next?  They painted the room another color and asked me if I wanted the paint.  Was I going to refuse FREE paint?  Of course not!  Who cares what the color was.


So, off to the 3rd house this paint went.  My house.


Now you are probably wondering what color is this paint?  How bad was it that 2 people already passed on it?  Well, I ask myself the same question. You see, the paint label is no longer there.  Well it's there, but you can't read a word printed on it.  See?

At first glance the paint appears to look gray.  A dark gray.  But on the walls when light shines on it the color appears to look...purple!  Sort of like a plum or eggplant purple.  I tried matching the paint color to some of the swatches in my Sherwin-Williams paint deck and this is the closest I came.  I don't know if this is the exact paint color, but it's pretty darn close- Exclusive Plum.  The exact name color (to this day) still remains a mystery.  ??????

When the paint made its' way to my house I couldn't quite figure out which room I was going to use this paint color in.  So, it sat in our basement for awhile.  A long... long...while.  Poor thing!

Months pass.  Or was it years?  By this time I totally forgot about the paint.  It was surely collecting dust in the basement.  Does anyone know if paint  goes bad?  Is there actually a shelf life for paint?  Well, how ever long it was a lot of time had definitely passed by.  


For some time I had been contemplating about repainting our downstairs powder room.  I no longer liked the color that was there now.  I thought it was about time for a change.  Just like I think it is about time for a change in weather here in Jersey.  This cold weather (and snow) is definitely getting to me.  I can't wait for the warmer weather already.  Look at all this snow! Two back to back blizzards here in the East Coast.  That's my 13-year-old son you see in the pictures.  It was pretty funny watching him shovel and handle the snow blower.  It was his first time to use both.  He thought it was going to be super easy using the snow blower.  Boy was he surprised.  Hubby and I just watched.  We were so proud of him, but secretly amused at the same time.  Then like any great dad would do the hubby went back out to rescue him.  That day was a wonderful bonding moment for father and son :)  I just wished I had a good picture of the two of them hard at work to show you. 

Okay.  Okay.  Back to my story.  Like I said I was looking for a change.  Now mind you, this powder room has been painted at least three different times since we moved in (4 1/2 years ago).  I was now repainting it for the fourth time.  As you can see it was just a plain tan color before I started repainting.  Nothing wrong with tan, just wanted something different.

The paint color hubby and I both agreed on to replace the tan color with was Light Silver Sage from Restoration Hardware.  We went back and forth contemplating on this color for some time.  We ended up buying the paint during one of the Friends & Family Events that they have every so often.  After weeks of the can just sitting there untouched, I finally came around and decided to paint.

After painting the room halfway, I stopped.  It wasn't exactly turning out the way I wanted it to.  I was hoping that it would be more of a silvery blue, but instead it looked more like a baby blue which was not the look I was going for.  At this point I decided to stop painting and see how the color would look during the day since I had painted at night. I was hoping it might look different, but I don't know what I was thinking. The powder room has no windows so it doesn't get any real sunlight and hence would really make no difference.  I guess it was just wishful thinking on my part :(  So, the next day I did the unthinkable.  I did this.

Yup!  You guessed it!  I decided to paint over it.  Goodbye baby blue!  And guess what paint I used.  Yup!  Right again!  Wow!  You guys are good, or was my story totally predictable?

You see I had to finish this room.  We had a party we were hosting at our house the next day, so I had to do something and quick! But what was I thinking?! What possessed me to want to paint before a party?  Guests needed to use this powder room.  What was I going to say?  Sorry, but this bathroom is OUT OF ORDER, or sorry but you have to hold it?!  I had no time to ponder over colors anymore.  I went into PANIC mode.  And then a light bulb lit up in my head.  It was PURPLE paint in the basement to the rescue.  I had no choice.  I knew I was taking a chance.  Not sure exactly how this color was going to turn out.  I mean, c'mon how bad could it be?  It's only paint.  Still...I crossed my fingers.  I was in for a big surprise.  Since we had no windows in our powder room the color actually turned out a NICE dark muddy-like gray color.  I loved it!  Who would have thought?!  Whew!

This castoff SW Duration paint finally found a home!  Whoohoo!  Every so often you will see a purplish hue, but it is ever so slight.  The look is definitely more dramatic than before but the color seems to flow much better with the color scheme that is currently going on throughout the downstairs half of our home.  I like!  My husband likes it too because he knows, since I like it I won't paint it again (for awhile anyways).  

Here is the powder room BEFORE:

 

  
Here is the powder room AFTER:

So, what do you think?  Not bad for paint that has been circulated around.  And the best part...it was FREE.  FREE.  FREE.  Have you had a similar experience like this ever happen to you?  Have you ever gotten another person's castoff paint?