Color swatches never match

I decided to repaint my daughter’s room. Right now it’s toothpaste green because it was originally the nursery for both kids. Green=okay for both genders. So, I went to the paint store and stared at all the color samples until I narrowed it down to a few choices. My goal was a soft buttercream. In my head I had visions of Laura Ashley prints, a soft feminine room straight out of a catalogue.

The fellow mixed up the paint, which mysteriously looked chalk white to me, but I figured–it dries darker, so it’ll work.

I prep her room, taping the molding, and I spread the first layer of paint. It does nothing to cover the toothpaste green. Crest green blazes through in all its glory. So I finish one coat on the wall (I want to see how it goes before I do the whole room) and then start on the second. Visions of buttercream dance through my head.

Nope. Still green.

I paint a THIRD coat on top of that. Guess what? Still green. I swear the guy mixed up a batch of toothpaste green without telling me because you CANNOT TELL I PAINTED. It looks exactly the same.

Two hours worth of work and $25 on paint supplies and it doesn’t look like I did a thing.

Furious and vowing I’ll never buy that brand of paint again, I stalk into my son’s room….only to find that he colored a gigantic letter H on his wall. You know how Crayola boasts that their crayons are washable? Yeah, not so much. With SANDPAPER maybe. But that crayon is NOT coming off. Not without acid and flames.

Maybe I’ll just paint it toothpaste green.