Duvet cover starts snowball effect

I've decided to change the look of my bedroom. For the past 5 years, my room has been pastel. It was my attempt to move away from the country quilt look. So, I went with pastel purple, yellow and green. My duvet cover was light purple with little daisies embroidered into the fabric. It came with matching shams. It was on sale. So, I bought light green curtains, a light green throw rug, and called it good.

Then, the northeastern sun beamed in my bedroom window and completely bleached one side of the duvet cover. Apparently, the change wasn't visible to the casual observer, but I felt it necessary to pull back the duvet, exposing its dark underbelly, while saying, "See how dark it's supposed to be." Then, polite casual observers would respond, "You can't really tell." Impolite ones made comments about my sanity that I won't reprint here. All I wanted was confirmation that yes, I needed a new duvet cover.

Moving ahead without this confirmation, I started my search for the elusive new duvet cover. Choosing bed linens is a big deal. A bedspread, duvet, or comforter is the defining piece in a bedroom. Flowers say, "A woman lives and sleeps here, and her boyfriend/husband loves her enough to put up with flowers." Paisley says, "The boyfriend/husband wanted a solid color while the woman wanted flowers, so they compromised and chose a print that went out of style with Miami Vice." A solid color says, "I got tired and bored and gave up." Animal print says, "I'm wild and I'm tacky!" I kept all of these things in mind as I searched for my new look.

When you don't know what you're looking for, it's hard to find it. After much searching, I finally found what I'd been looking for (take that, Bono!). Yesterday, I purchased a duvet cover that's red with white flowers. Looks like someone drew the flowers with chalk. I liked the look of it, and liked the price even more.

With much anticipation, I brought it home, stripped off the old faded duvet cover and replaced it with the new one. I stepped back and admired the new look. The red really warmed up the room and was a nice contrast to my wood furniture and the bland apartment walls. All was perfect, except for the light green curtains and pastel colored pictures on the wall. So, now I needed new curtains and artwork.

I decided I didn't want red curtains because that would be too much red. I didn't want white curtains because they wouldn't add any color to the room. I thought, "What colors match red and white?" Blue? No, I didn't want a Yankee Doodle bedroom. Green? No, I didn't want a Holly Jolly bedroom. Again, having no idea what I was looking for, I set out.

There are lots of ugly curtains out there, folks. Lots of them. And they're really expensive. I finally ended up at Lowe's. I was hot, tired, and hungry. I looked at their selection and liked the prices. I almost gave in and bought red, then I saw black. I thought, "Now that's interesting and worth a try." Got 'em, brought 'em home, and now I have a Georgia Bulldog bedroom. Dammit.

It doesn't look bad, but I can't go in there without hearing "It's great (clap clap) to be (clap clap) a Georgia Bulldog." It's not particularly restful or soothing. There may be some people who wouldn't mind hearing that as they drift off to sleep, but I'm not (clap clap) one of them, nor do I want to be (clap clap) one of them. I also don't want (clap clap) one of them in my bed.

I'm now thinking that smoky gray may be the way to go.