and the winner is...

...TURQUOISE!!!

so here's how the whole "let's pick a paint color" really went. i didnt actually end up just winging it in the paint aisle of home depot and picking a color at random. which is probably a good thing, because when i stopped by there real quick-like on Friday afternoon because it was kind of only a little bit out of my way of my route home, i realized that there are a LOT of shades of blue out there. so i brought home a few swatches.

(ok, so maybe more like ALL of the swatches)

i managed to narrow my selection down to two: one navy, and one turquoise. one that Mark liked better, and one that i liked better. and then i tried to decide which one i liked best for the outside of the front door by taping them on the inside of the door in the dimly lit front room at 10:30pm. i do not recommend this method. at all.

so on Saturday morning i real-quick moved the swatches to the outside of the door to look at them in real sunlight. and i liked them both. sigh. but since i was determined to paint the door and i had a bunch of other errands to run, i taped them to the dashboard of my car and took them with me, hoping that by staring them as i drove i would make a decision before i got to the Depot.

i didnt make my final decision until the very last second. as in, i asked everyone at the paint counter for their votes. the one other guy who was buying paint voted for the navy. the one paint lady kept her mouth shut and mumbled something about it being a personal decision. the other paint lady told me the turquoise was kicky. and i liked that description of it. so i went for it.

ALSO, since i had to take the hardware off the door anyway, i impulsively decided to paint it too, with a couple coats of Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.

the only bad news of the day is that i kind of hate the hardware now even more than i hated it when it was all nasty and chipped gold. its just too dark, at least for the handle and lock that are on the inside of the door. i think i might have to repaint them a nickel color instead. or just buy new ones.

but let's focus on the good news: my front door is kicky and BEAUTIFUL!!! 

(even if the hardware is still mismatched right now because i couldnt get the door knocker off the door so its still gold but i want to give the paint plenty of time to dry before i tape and cover it to spray the door knocker but i dont even know if i'm going to do that yet because i might end up repainting the lock and knob anyway and now i kind of regret that i painted them in the first place and UGH how can one person be so impulsive and so indecisive all at the same time?!?)