I am always surprised with the comments I get on my blog after I post photos of a boldly painted wall or brightly painted piece of furniture.  For the most part, I hear the oooohs and ahhhhs that I say to myself when I finish a project.  But sometimes, I hear, “I love it, but I don’t think I could pull off a bright yellow dresser.”

Why not?

How many of you feel scared to add color to your home?  What if you paint a wall blue and don’t like it?  Well, what if you paint a wall blue and love it?  It’s just paint after all.

So, for all of my friends who are a wee bit nervous to take the dive, Glidden has created a new online community called My Colortopia.  Today, I am pleased excited overjoyed to announce that I have joined a field of jaw dropping home decor bloggers in contributing color inspiration and how to ideas on the My Colortopia blog.  Seriously.  It’s the big dogs –  Centsational Girl, Brooklyn Limestone, Ana White, Making it Lovely, The Inspired Room, In My Own Style – and little ‘ole me.  My first how to, Choosing the Right Brushes and Rollers for your project, has just been posted to the blog.

The folks at Glidden have big plans for My Colortopia.  Right now, the site is a fabulous blog.  Very soon it will transform into a source of inspiration, a community of home decor enthusiasts, and a place to get your color and painting questions answered by people like me who never can never seem to get all of the paint washed out of their hair.  Go ahead and bookmark it now.  I’ll let you know when the fun goodies have gone live.

So, tell me about you and the color choices in your home.  What’s the one color you’d love to add but you feel nervous about it?  Blue?  Pink?  Orange?  Charcoal Gray?

I have partnered with Glidden/ Akzo Nobel Paints to participate in the My Colortopia program but the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Have you noticed the number of color changing DIY products that have hit the shelves in your local home improvement store?  The concept is that the color of the product is pink when it is applied, but it changes to white as it dries.  The formula that creates the color change is a closely held trade secret, but I assume that there must be a chemical in the product that evaporates and causes the color change.

As I was repainting our half bath, I thought it would be fun to try out some of these products so I picked some up during one of my many visits to The Home Depot.  No one asked me to do so, but I’m a former science nerd who just loves this kind of stuff!  The first one that I tested was the DAP DryDex Spackling.  I will be replacing the accessories in the bathroom, such as the towel ring and toilet paper holder, so I went ahead and spackled over those holes before I painted.  As you can see, the spackle went onto my wall bright pink.

This product dried pretty quickly.  It probably took it about 30 minutes to turn from pink to completely white.  The below photo shows it almost dry.  I apologize for the poorly lit photo, but I had already taken down the light fixture in the room to prep the ceiling for painting when I took this shot.

Speaking of the ceiling, I wanted to change it from builder’s beige to bright white.  I primed it with Kilz primer (because I always prime), and then I used the Glidden Pink to White Ceiling Paint.  The ceiling paint works the same way as the DryDex Spackling did.  It wasn’t quite as pink when it was applied, but it definitely had a pink hue to me.  It was nice that I could tell if there were any spots I missed while painting.

The Pink to White Ceiling Paint took longer to dry (i.e. turn white) than I figured it would.  I can normally count on latex paint in my house being ready to be re-coated in about 30 minutes.  Instead, this ceiling paint took about 2 hours to dry.  Even with priming, I still put on 2 coats of the ceiling paint – I’m also always a 2 coat painter.  The finished product is a beautiful bright white.

It’s worth noting that these products may not work great for all DIYers.  My husband is red/green colorblind, and he couldn’t see a color difference in the Pink to White Ceiling Paint.  I think it’s because the pink in this product isn’t all that bright.  He had an easier time seeing the pink in the DryDex Spackling.

Have you tried any of the pink to white products?  What did you think?