My Kitchen Rug Obsession

Quickie update:

 Because of a 1/8″  disparity in size between our dark + light tiles,

our checked kitchen floor hopes + dreams were dashed.

Thanks to some quick thinking on my part, plan B happened.

Here ’tis:

1. All the dark tiles have been laid in a running bond pattern.

2. The lighter gray tiles have been returned to our local build-o-rama, Menards.

3. We now wait for more darks so we can complete our task.

Part most of me is glad we’ll have a plain Jane floor,

because I am obsessing about patterned kitchen rugs.

Maybe you’ve noticed that they’re a ‘thing’ now.

From Apartment Therapy:

More specifically, kilim rugs in kitchen are a thing.

One of my designer faves, Emily Henderson, is on board:

Ditto for This Old House magazine:

Since I’ve been a fan of kilim rugs for years,

their surge in popularity is good news for me!

Here’s one I bought way back in ’06:

As you can see, it has all the ‘Kay colors’, as I like to say.

Yep, that rug really tied the room together.

HA!  Did you recognize that quote from one of my favorite movies,

The Big Lebowski?

If not, rent it.  Watch it.  Thumbs up!

* * *

But I digress.

Check out the wallpaper on the ceiling here — yay or nay?

Apartment Therapy

I’m going to vote ‘yay’,

 but would our relationship survive our attempting to wallpaper a ceiling?

While we ponder that query,

let’s have a look-see at another rug with the ‘Kay colors’:

From Pottery Barn

This version of the ‘Kay colors’ is lighter + more now

than those in our current living room.

.The pretty, pale-ish blue of the PB version would play nicely

with our kitchen’s blue ceiling, don’t you think?

Plus, it’s an indoor/outdoor rug —

pretty much a must-have for a kitchen in my little world!

Luckily for us, indoor/outdoor rugs seem to be a ‘thing’ now, too.

The choices are endless!

Time to go online shopping — stay tuned!

Major Tile Problem — Solved!

Imagine my excitement earlier today,

as we finally started laying our checked tile kitchen floor!

We’d chosen Daltile’s Color Scheme 12″ porcelain tiles —

1/2 in Black Speckle + the other 1/2 in Desert Gray Speckle.

Everything was going swimmingly — up until the third tile,

when G.O. discovered we had a major problem.

The lighter tiles were maybe 1/8 of an inch larger than the darks!

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT??!!??

But how can 1/8″ possibly be an issue? — you ask.

Well, when 1/8″ is multiplied over dozens of tiles in an entire room,

it definitely becomes a major issue.

Meaning: goodbye, checked floor.

Meaning: now G.O.’s mad!

(Thankfully, not at me this time!)

SO QUICK!  WHAT TO DO???

PUNT!

Somehow, I decided on a suitable Plan B, within mere moments!

See for yourself:

GENIUS!

We’d use only the dark tiles + lay them in a running bond pattern!

And I owe it all to my extreme indecisiveness!

My extreme what???  — you ask.

Well, over my many months of kitchen floor planning,

before finally settling on the checks,

I had seen several that I really loved.

They looked just like this!

So it’s not so much “GENIUS” as good fortune,

but I’ll we’ll take it!

And while the plain black speckles aren’t as retro-charming as the checks . . .

. . . the plain Janes add a nice modern country look that I love.

Crisis averted!

(As long as we can get a couple more boxes of tiles

that look exactly like + are the same size as these!)

Fingers crossed, so stay tuned!

Our Kitchen’s Mostly-Gray Color Scheme

 Our Dutch colonial kitchen remains in mid-redo,

or as I like to call it — “that awkward stage” —

see also: ME, in 7th grade.  Ha!

While I’ve matured from “awkward” all the way to “granny” . . .

. . . our poor kitchen still looks a tad iffy!

Fear not!

There have been lots of improvements!

Check out this wonderful, new trim around our wonderful, new window:

People, I can’t over emphasize how awesome this is.

When I say new window, I mean it.

Check out this before snappie:

Here’s a during photo, showing a much larger new window:

And now:

G.O. masterfully reproduced our Dutch colonial’s original window trim

+ then gave it a couple coats of fresh, white paint.

Now it’s impossible to tell that it wasn’t always there!

.

Look closely, + you can see another improvement — bead board walls.

The kitchen needed them, for instant charm + character, don’t you think?

But wait!

It’s not paneling; it’s actually paintable wallpaper!

Martha Stewart from Home Depot.

$24.95/roll

It’s already been painted a very pale gray —

Thin Ice from Pittsburgh Paints.

There it is with the rest of my kitchen color story:

At left is our kitchen ceiling’s Chambray blue,

also from Pittsburgh Paints.

The white represents the woodwork + cabinets,

+ the dark gray was* chosen for the doors

(*I’ve since opted to go darker, though, so stay tuned.)

Yikes!  That door really needs a fresh coat, no?

And the naughty, obviously bad-replacement door hardware?

It will soon be replaced with this —

our house’s beautiful, original hardware!

Much, much better, no?

Looks like I need to go shopping for a new cat door, too . . .

. . . more on that, later.

* * *

Anyway, back to the color story!

There’s yet another gray — that of our fabulous backsplash tiles:

My mostly-gray color scheme is very subtle, ’tis true,

but there will be enough contrast to make things fairly interesting.

I hope.

Fingers crossed!

* * *

So.  Let’s recap, shall we?

1. Gray walls are slightly darker than white woodwork.

2. Gray backsplash tiles are slightly darker than gray walls.

Check, check!

Oh, + did I mention that today, at long last,

the kitchen floor tiles are being installed?

The operative words are at long last,

so imagine my excitement about that floor!

In fact, I must step away from the bozoputer + head over, to view said-same!

Stay tuned!

Kitchen Tiles’ Arrival

The tiles for our checkerboard kitchen floor have arrived!

You can read about my kooky selection process here:

https://redbirdv.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/kitchen-floor-tile-is-en-route/

* * *

So, anyway, here’s what we ordered:

5 boxes each of Desert Gray Speckled + Black Speckled

12″ square porcelain tiles,

from Daltile’s Color Scheme collection @ only $2.99 sq. ft.!

,

Let me tell ya, 10 boxes of tile are crazy heavy,

(I couldn’t even lift one),

so G.O. used a cart to transport them from his truck to our back door,

5 boxes at a time:

Once the boxes reached their destination IN-side the house,

we immediately laid out a few tiles for a look-see:

Hey, look!  It’s our new Maytag dishwasher!

Is it wrong that both G.O. are madly in love with that handle?

It’s so chunky!  It’s also stainless steel,

which pops so nicely against the white appliance.

* * *

But back to our floor:

Getting the layout just right is going to involve a whole lot o’ math.

Here’s G.O., getting a head start on said-same:

Definitely stay tuned!