Pesky Problem Solved By The Internet!

It’s fairly commonplace

to ask new-build + new-rehab homeowners:

“Is there anything you would do differently?”

My reply would be parts of our kitchen.  Here’s one:

That sliver of space between our stove/range hood + wall is troublesome.

Here are some photos of  how I dealt with the lower cabinets.

My galvanized storage bins are from World Market:

I like the bins, but it’s above that bothers me

— on either side of the range hood.

I considered my go-to wall decor — hanging plates.

I’m fond of the blue + white plates in our main bathroom, downstairs:

Disclaimer: that wreath needs to be hung higher, like here:

(Yes, I have already shared this with G.O.!)

But wait.  There’s more.  Check out those shelves!

They, too, are mere slivers of space, + yet.

How awesome!

They’ve been tricked out very tastefully!

I wonder if  very narrow shelves would work in our kitchen.

I shan’t lie.  I am on the fence.

All that means is that I shall continue to stew about it,

until the day arrives that I go for it or just  leave it.

Meanwhile, I am going to copy something from that blogger’s kitchen.

My small collections of wood bread boards will move . . .

. . . + will relocate to this spot:

. . . at the back of the stove top, like here:

I love being inspired so early in the morning!

Have you been inspired by a blog post or a Pinterest photo?

And no, I don’t know what we did before the internet!

Our Bathroom’s Green/Now What?

I’ve gone way out of my comfort zone,

+ we’re painting our upstairs bathroom sage green.

It’s one of many sage greens from Sherwin-Williams!

I chose Unusual Gray (at the bottom, above) for the walls,

with Contented (3rd from the top), lightened by 50%, for the ceiling.

Here they are, side by side in our bathroom.

I think they look more green + less gray, on the walls + ceilings.

It looks good, but it needs a white crown molding at the ceiling

to make it look crisp + neat.

Something like this:

The Contented ceiling pops nicely against the white subway tiles,

so I have faith it will look great with that white crown.

There wasn’t enough of the original woodwork for this room,

so G.O. bought some new baseboards that are just as tall as the old ones:

He brought in his compound miter saw from the garage:

Soon, he’ll add some quarter-round molding at the floor.

I am relieved that I like actually like the colors . . .

. . . because let’s face it: greens can go so wrong, so easily.

The Unusual Gray is a tad darker than I anticipated,

but that might be because of all the dark + cloudy days we’re having.

Soon enough, we will be adding all the finishing touches.

Help!  What goes with green?

Stay tuned!

Will I Have Painter’s Remorse?

Yesterday I mentioned my quest

to find the perfect gray-green paint for our upstairs bathroom.

I found this list of sage greens on Pinterest.

We’d be living in our car if there was no Pinterest.

I had chosen my front runner last night,

but I had to wait to see the paint chips in our bathroom in the day.

We started eliminating the ones that were clearly wrong —

maybe too dark or too yellow to make the cut.

Our paint mustn’t be too green, either, as I wanted a gray-green.

We finally ruled out the rest of the unwanted colors,

settling on this pair, for both the wall + the ceiling.

Unusual Gray, left, + Contentment, slightly lighter for the ceiling.

Not so fast.

Soon I had myself fearing that Contentment was too dark on the ceiling

+ wouldn’t provide enough contrast with the walls.

Here’s where it gets a little crazy.

I told G.O. to ask the paint guy at Sherwin-Williams to lighten it by 50%.

He was not on board, but I assured him that this was a thing,

+ that the popular bloggers do it!

To ease his mind (+ mine), I called Sherwin-Williams to confirm.

Yes, they do it.

See for yourself:

Here are the cans, waiting for their thumbs up or down by me:

Disclaimer: as greens tend to do,

Unusual Gray looked more gray in the light of the kitchen (below)

+ more green in the bathroom.

Here’s the first bit of Contentment on the ceiling:

It’s a dark + gloomy day,  so I’m sure the colors will change

when/if the sun finally opts to shine again.

That bathroom is super bright

because of a solar tube that G.O. installed in the ceiling.

Excuse the unusually bad photo, but here ’tis:

He needs to install the panel thing, of course.

When the sun’s shining, that room is so bright —

the kind of bright that has you reaching for the light switch!

I’ll have to ask G.O. about the solar tube

so that I can share with the class.

Promise.

Meanwhile,  here are a couple of additional photos of our bathroom.

Our white vanity from is from IKEA:

I forget its Swedish name, but it has 2 drawers.

I super love its vanity top, which is similar to this:

The black + white tiles are period-appropriate to our house:

I think Lowe’s has them in stock,

but we got ours from Tile Outlet in Chicago.

Anyway, it’s time to climb those stairs again

+ inspect G.O.’s progress.

Stay tuned for more ‘after’ updates!

My Quest For The Perfect Gray-Green

G.O. is working on the upstairs bathroom,

so I’ve been busy thinking about paint colors, etc.

I was all set to get Glidden’s Prairie Sage (bottom right),

since it was described as a neutral alternative to gray.

Trust me, we have enough gray walls downstairs.

 I am ready for a change but want to stay neutral-ish.

Besides, green is a thing now.

Anyway, off we drive to Home Depot for a gallon of Glidden Prairie Sage.

Long story short — neither of us liked it.

I thought it looked too bright + too mint.

The minute we got home, I headed to Pinterest,

where I began a furtive search for green-gray paint.

When I saw these being described as matches to

Restoration Hardware paint, my search was officially ovah!

I mean, people.

Everything from Restoration Hardware is exquisite, is it not?

Sadly, it’s almost 5 bells, so I shall have to wait until manana

to drive to our (brand new + local) Sherwin-Williams.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Meanwhile, earlier today I casually suggested we do this

to the bathrooms walls:

I mean, how cool!  Plus, isn’t it easy to install?  I hope?

Oops.  I think that’s where I lost him.

Wish me luck with the paint, though.

  I’ll report back — so stay tuned.

 

Kitchen Windows + Door

Last Christmas we had wreaths like this in every window.

I wanted to hang them on the windows outside this year.

Like this:

Or this:

How charming is that?

G.O. wasn’t on board, sadly, so maybe next year.

Meanwhile, the wreaths do look good on windows inside the house,

don’t you think?

The cute, little trees were from IKEA a few years ago,

+ my favorite Guy Wolff pots were from Smith + Hawken.  RIP

Those sweet red checked curtains started their lives as a bed skirt

from when Martha Stewart still sold stuff at K-Mart.  RIP

Watch here to see a K-Mart commercial starring Martha Stewart.

F U N !

Awwwww!  That cute Dachsie card was sent to me by cousin, Gwen.

Those red light fixtures were from Ballard Designs.

We hung another wreath on our kitchen door:

How adorable!

But now I must ask for your opinions.

We painted all of our interior doors Black Magic by Pittsburgh Paints.

Here’s the door to the powder room:

Here’s our bedroom closet doors:

We just assumed that the kitchen door

would receive its own coat of Black Magic paint someday.

But wait.

My friends were here for brunch a few days ago,

+ they both thought the door looked good, as is!

I had never thought to do that!

Of course, I am now kind of obsessing about it.

See Exhibits A + B:

What do you think?

Black Magic?

Or chippy white?

 

Time will tell, so stay tuned!

Santas Under Glass

One of the best things about all the red in our kitchen

is how festive it looks at Christmas time!

I love our red Bella coffee maker,

the buffalo check candle is from Marshalls,

+ I used to sell Hoosier glass jars like this in my old store.

Our kitchen window sill is quite deep,

so I have lots of fun displaying my collectibles on it.

Right now it’s filled with my Santas,

+ this year I opted to display them under glass cloches.

Only one is a genuine cloche, though,

while the others are various repurposed glass containers.

My cast iron Santa from the Sundance catalog

is under a glass globe from an old industrial light fixture.

This small hand-carved Santa

is from a fellow vendor at one of my mid-90’s markets.

His cloche is actually a small glass item

for which I paid $3 just the other day, at a local antique shop*.

We’re not sure what it was originally, but it’s the perfect small size!

* I found a box of 12 red Shiny Brite ornaments

at the same store + on the same day.

My blue + gray salt-glaze pottery Santa

is from Rowe Pottery Works in Cambridge, Wisconsin.

I used to carry their wares in my old store, too.

Look closely at his cloche —

it is actually a small glass measuring beaker that I found at Walmart.

I think it looks vintage + industrial, don’t you?

A similar set of beakers is available online from Walmart.

I call this Hallmark ornament the Paula Deen’s husband Santa.

Seriously.  Separated at birth, or what?

Do you recognize his cloche?

It is a preserves jar from the French company, Bonne Maman.

Notice that Santa’s standing on the darling red check jar lid!

We love the cherry preserves at our house.

And finally, we have the only real cloche of my collection.

I bought it years ago at the late, great Smith + Hawken store.

I’m guessing that Santa probably came from my old shop, too.

Doesn’t the tall, slender beaker look great, with the sun shining through it?

Meanwhile, that’s about it for my Santas collection.

In the olden days, I had dozens more of them,

but sold or gave away most when I entered my less-is-more phase.

Let’s take a quick look at some other (mostly red) things in our kitchen.

 We can discuss said red accents at a later date.

Stay tuned.

 

A Simple Christmas Porch

This afternoon I snapped just a few photos of our pretty new porch,

 decorated very simply for Christmas time.

We bought those black urns at Lowe’s this past summer,

+ of course, at the time,

I was already dreaming of how pretty they would look at Christmas.

They look like cast iron but are actually made from old tires,

which means they are lightweight + are supposed to be durable enough

to make it throughout the cold winter months.

Each window in our house has a single electric candle,

which is one of my favorite things to do.

I think it is so quaint, especially in a 2-story house like ours

(+ this one, below:)

We hung some artificial garland made of mixed greens,

including some blue spruce,

which coordinates divinely with our blue spruce topiary.

Yes, I know this Dachshund is tacky, but how could I resist so much cuteness?

She’s standing in front of my seats from the old Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

I bought that ginormous wreath at a garage sale one warm summer day.

It’s hard to tell in this photo, but those are big, retro red bulbs.

Yes, I use a lot of red in our house, which is especially festive at Christmas time.

Did I share a photo of our new mailbox?

Look!  Yet another Dachshund — a boot  scraper, actually,

which I placed next to some old, red boots I bought at a vintage store.

This may or may not be the final version of our Christmas porch,

but whatever — I am going to keep things simple, with red + greens.

Early Christmas at the Dutch Colonial

Hooray!  A couple of days ago, I put up our Christmas tree.

Delightful!  But wait.

Just for fun, let’s go down memory lane + look at our 2009 tree:

That washtub stand looked super cute + kept our new kittens at bay.

Those clip-on candle strings were so charming!

My aunt Elva had these beauties on her Christmas tree,

so I was inspired to use them, too.

You can buy your own here.

Now, then, let’s head back to this year’s tree:

We bought it online last year, but I can’t recall where I found it.  Oops.

Anyway, I liked it because it resembled those simple + spare trees

that are all the rage —

something like this 7′ artificial tree by Vickermans, on Amazon:

WOW.  I know! —  how fantastic

Our version is only 3′ tall,

so we placed it on top of a carom board table that G.O. made.

Here’s a close up view:

Oh, + as you can see,

I switched out our letter board message on the art ledge.

Those are some lyrics of one of my favorite (John Lennon) Christmas songs:

 Back to the tree.

I limited the ornaments to red balls, mustard gold stars,

+ silvery glass pinecones + nuts from Martha’s old K-Mart merch:

Oh, how I miss the days when Martha sold at K-Mart!

The scuttlebutt is that after she walked into a K-Mart store

+ saw the messy displays (imagine that!),

she ruined  my life by ending her collaboration with K-Mart.

S A D !

Moving on, these pretty stars are holdovers from my old retail store,

Heart-in-Hand, circa 1990-something.

Here ’tis, in 1991, when I bought that building:

But I digress.

My plans are to add one more detail — some silvery metal icicles.

If you look closely, you can see them on our ’09 tree:

Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, let’s discuss that fence around the base of our tree.

Like the star ornaments, the fence is from my Heart-in-Hand era.

I bought it from the Rowe Pottery Work retail store in Cambridge, WI:

I used to sell their commemorative pottery in my store.

Several times a year, I opted to drive a couple of pleasant hours

through Wisconsin to pick up my pottery orders (no huge shipping bill!)

But I digress!

Here’s one more look at our Christmas tree — a.k.a. Kay’s morale boost!

Yet more Christmas-related morale boosts occurred

out on our recently finished front porch!

I can’t wait to share more photos!

Stay tuned!