Can This Marriage be Saved????

We are at the stage of needing to paint the walls in our newly remodeled master bedroom/bathroom space.  Bud has decided he wants more color in our house.  I am perfectly comfortable with off white walls and a little bit of color on some walls that only really shows up in bright sunlight.

SO, we went to the paint store and began this journey of compromise.  We picked out 5 sample cans to bring home and start the process.  I am not good at painting because I get more paint on me than the walls so Bud set up his sample laboratory in the kitchen. 

 

 We all know that I would already have paint on my clothes by the time I opened the cans but not Bud.  He can open the cans right on the kitchen counter and not even put down protection for the countertops. 

 This is the beginning of the gray color for the living room.  So that we don't have to live with test spots on the walls, Bud took down some pictures, marked off the space with tape and filled in the place where the pictures would be so that we can cover up the test spots while we are working out the colors for the living room. 
I felt this gray was a bit too dark and had too much lavender in the color.  Bud couldn't see the lavender and thought it looked good.

 This is the bright blue we picked out for the bedroom.  Again I thought it was too dark. 

 He had in mind this brown color for the new area in the bathroom/bedroom TV area where we took the tub out.  Again I was not very happy with this color right from the beginning but I let him try it out.  He did decide pretty soon that it was too dark and we have eliminated this color all together

 I was happy that this color was eliminated from our choices.  We discussed the color choices in depth (no loud voices but I did have a sleepless night trying to think of how I would approach my apprehension of the colors)  After discussing things again, we decided that all the colors we picked out are probably too dark.  (Bud came up with that on his own, I didn't cry or anything)  We have dark ceilings and a lot of wood so we decided that lighter colors would be better for our house.   I have accepted that we will have color on the walls, I am good with that and Bud had accepted that darker colors really don't work in our house. 
We both went back to the paint store and picked out some more swatches and Bud laid the colors out in groups in the kitchen.  We chose 2 new gray colors to try and another blue.  Those sample cans came home yesterday and so the search for the perfect gray and blue continues.  I am hoping we are both happy when the final colors go up on the walls.

Meanwhile, I retreated to my sewing room and made a Teddy Bear for a birthday party we are attending today. 

Life goes on here, Up North.  Color is coming into our lives and compromise is important. I think our marriage can continue to be happy.