In Chap­ter 156 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the pro­tag­o­nist ded­i­cates a week to paint­ing his home after com­plet­ing the fram­ing and allow­ing the stuc­co to dry. The house is trans­formed into a vision of his dreams: the walls are coat­ed in white, while the shut­ters are a shift­ing shade of Aegean, evok­ing mem­o­ries that flut­ter like pea­cock feath­ers in his mind. This stark con­trast between light and dark con­tributes to his emo­tion­al land­scape.

He reflects on moments of joy, such as danc­ing on the wood­en floor­boards with tap shoes, fill­ing the space with sound until his heart soared. Patch, intent on cre­at­ing a space that res­onates with his inner vision, search­es for heart pine floors, spend­ing a month search­ing through recla­ma­tion yards to find the per­fect shade that aligns with his imag­i­na­tion.

Patch recounts the his­to­ry of the house—a bed­room for him­self, his moth­er, and addi­tion­al rooms rent­ed out to var­i­ous guests. He remem­bers a young woman who taught him make­up, encap­su­lat­ing the notion of deca­dence; and a preach­er trav­el­ling to Pearl Riv­er Coun­ty, evok­ing images of a trou­bled place in need of purifi­ca­tion. Despite hav­ing five bed­rooms, he envi­sions liv­ing alone with­in the expan­sive­ness of a cav­ernous den, kitchen, and din­ing room that accom­mo­dates the tra­di­tions of Thanks­giv­ing din­ners, empha­sized by Grace’s insis­tence on for­mal­i­ties.

An orangery—a term Patch ini­tial­ly did not understand—becomes a fea­ture named by Saint. He is cap­ti­vat­ed by the morn­ing light that fil­ters through its glass roof onto the white walls. The exter­nal stair­case proves to be a daunt­ing task, near­ly over­whelm­ing him with frus­tra­tion. Seek­ing help, he calls upon Saint’s cousin Patrick, a car­pen­ter who assists him over Labor Day week­end. The stair­case emerges near­ly as he envi­sioned, prompt­ing an emo­tion­al hug of grat­i­tude between them, lead­ing Patrick to seek Sain­t’s assis­tance to extri­cate him­self from the embrace.

Amidst shar­ing a meal of Brunswick stew and corn muffins, Sain­t’s grand­moth­er admires the aes­thet­ics of the house, rein­forc­ing Patch’s sense of accom­plish­ment and pride in his labor of love .