Not so pretty in pink

Have you ever thought you were really good at something and then had it taken away from you? Stinks, right?
No, I'm not talking about work. I'm a darn good doctor. I'm talking about my skills (or newly apparent lack thereof) as an interior designer. Specifically, I'm referring to my formerly uncanny ability to pick paint colors. I mean, I picked eleven different colors altogether for our house in Nashville and loved every last one from paint swatch to done deal up on the walls.
But I've found my downfall... pink. Gizmo's room decor is going to be pink with aqua and just a bit of lime green here and there. I can picture it now... three white walls and one pink wall with a thick, horizontal aqua stripe. Oh, the white crib will stand out so nicely against the rich, saturated pink.
Game time: I have a color picked. Nick comments on how bright a pink it is. I start to doubt, which was clearly mistake #1 as I've always ignored his paint color comments before. So instead of going with Bridesmaid, I head one shade lighter next door to Cotton Candy. Fast forward to the home improvement store. The guy shows us the color before he pounds it shut (the nails on my pink paint coffin), and I realize this pink is bright. But not the rich, watermelon hue I'd envisioned. Like, neon. But it always dries darker, right? This leads me straight to mistake #2 in which I quell the inner voice telling me how ugly this paint is. Drying darker takes us from neon to Pepto Bismol. Nick tried to be encouraging and call it bubblegum.
Back to the drawing board. We're down to two much darker, deeper pinks. Watermelon and Dragon Fruit. But now I can't commit; I'm paralyzed with paint selection fear.
I think I'm going to have to join the mere mortals of home design and... buy tiny paint sample jars before committing to a color. This goes against everything in my impulse-decision making self, but I just can't get out of my own head. Hopefully I'll have some good news on the other side of my re-pinked wall.