We were both surprised by what happened when we went completely without television for a week—Sherry even more so than I was. Today we’re sharing what we learned, what felt difficult, and a few side effects that surprised us. We’ll also talk about how the experiment might change our viewing habits going forward. On top of that, we tested a new approach to choosing paint to solve a color puzzle at the beach house, Sherry gives an update on her “tooth jail” situation, and I nerd out about pairing paint colors with geography.
You can also find this episode on your favorite podcast app, like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, and Spotify.
What’s New
- These are some of the pink swatches we tested for the beach house living room. The photo was a quick phone shot on a cloudy day, so it’s not perfect. The removable vinyl paint color decals above are from Clare — we received them for free through a promotional code they had. Normally they’re around $2 each, and at the time of writing there was a “5 for $5 & free shipping” offer on their site.
- We first talked about Clare Paint in Episode #109 last summer, where we explained why the brand caught our interest.
- The three Clare colors we tried were Wing It, Baby Soft, and Rosé Season. Looking at the photos now makes me wonder if they were better than we remembered, but in-person they didn’t match the space perfectly.
- We also received a package of samples from Backdrop, a competitor in the online paint space.
- The four Backdrop decal samples we bought were Harajuku Morning, Rose Quartz, Modern Love, and Not So Delicate. We didn’t photograph every swatch on the wall—one was clearly too dark to use—but the images show how we’re trying to balance colors with the chimney’s undertones and the gray trim, which is trickier than it sounds.
- We don’t have a great shot of the new couch at the beach house yet, but we’ll share one soon. It’s the Mellow Sofa from our furniture line. It’s currently sold out (thank you!), and we’re working to restock it.
- At the duplex we used DIY paint sample decals to choose a color. You paint two coats onto the decals yourself, so it’s not faster or cheaper, but it’s a reliable way to choose a color with confidence. We’ve written about that process in a previous post if you want more details.
- If you’ve been following Sherry’s Invisalign updates, here’s a quick recap of earlier mentions: getting them back in 2016 (Episode #20), adding elastics in 2017 (Episode #62), and having the “tooth jail” sentence extended into 2018 (Episode #84).
State Your Colors Quiz
- Sherwin-Williams’ “State Your Colors” trios are a handy place to explore coordinated palettes. I suggested Chesapeake for Virginia earlier, which turned out to be an exterior stain color, and Sherry’s imagined Dogwood White isn’t far off from Sherwin-Williams’ actual White Dogwood, which leans pink.
TV-Free Week
- The idea for a TV-free week first came up during our interview with Joshua Becker in Episode #128.
- During the break from screens we played a lot of games with the kids, including Happy Salmon, Life Jr., and Tenzi—simple, loud, and fun alternatives to passive watching.
- We’ve written about cutting cable before. Ditching traditional cable saved us about $1,000 a year and forced us to be selective about what we watch, which turned out to be a positive change.
We’re Digging
- Our furniture collection is currently on sale at Joss & Main, so if you’ve been considering something from the line, now is a good time to buy.
- Watching the product names was entertaining—some of them are delightfully unusual, from Liverman to Singita to the eyebrow-raising PREGLO.
- I read Radium Girls during the TV-free week. The book is infuriating at times—the women were told radium was beneficial even as they were dipping brushes in their mouths.
- Sherry has been into biodegradable floss picks lately. She finds them oddly satisfying; they were out of stock when we checked, but they’re worth watching for restock if you’re interested.
If you’re trying to find something we’ve recommended before, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from past episodes, as well as a page that compiles all the books we’ve suggested on our Book Club page.
Finally, thanks to Agility Bed for sponsoring this episode. During their Presidents’ Day sale you can use the code PRESIDENT to get $150 off any size mattress plus a free pair of Therapedic TruCool Memory Foam Pillows.
Thanks for listening, everyone!
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