choosing a paint color for a child's room

In getting ready for this sweet little nursery mural, the homeowner is painting the room themselves which is something I almost always have them do. It is pretty common for a homeowner to choose a color for the room, paint it, then commission me to paint a mural on top of their chosen paint color. Every once in a while I run into the issue of my client being unhappy with the color of paint they decided upon for the base.

I always like to tell my client's that there is no need to panic when you've painted a color that you don't particularly like. It is only paint after all and as I have discussed with my favorite helper (my dad) there isn't a mistake that can't be fixed. Aside from extra labor to paint over the room again, paint is quite inexpensive and in the long run it is better to change the color than to live with one you aren't happy with, especially if you are investing in a lovely mural to go over it.

With this particular room, the new mom and grandmom chose a nice neutral yellow color. They were very diligent in their color choosing, getting different samples and painting them on foam core, checking them in the room in different spots. This is a fine way of doing it, however, I always tell people first lets look at what fabrics you are using for the bedding, chairs, curtains etc. Most new moms have chosen a bedding set as soon as they found out they were carrying their little bundle of joy. When my client asked me to come and tell me what I think of the color and that she isn't sure about it, I was happy to oblige. the room was only just painted around the closet and apparently Grandmom stopped there because this color wasn't turning out quite as expected. My first question to my client was "can I see the bedding"?
It turns out that they hadn't even thought about that. It's a common mistake and unless you've painted a hundred rooms (or even a couple) and made those mistakes yourself, you won't know. We chose a new yellow today from the bedding and went from lemony to buttery, sounds like a small difference, but it makes a big change. We will be starting off fresh on Tuesday with our woodland nursery. I'll be giving a play by play of this one, stay tuned.