Navy Blue Walls, The Sequel?

I think it’s been 5 years since we painted our living room

Pittsburgh Paint Flagstone gray:

In my little world,

having any room be the same color for 5 years

is just NOT acceptable!!

Yes, it’s time for a change!

(Plus, I never really wanted gray.)

My heart was set on my favorite color — navy blue!

Sadly, as so often happens,

I was too timid to choose something so bold

+ instead, settled on the neutral gray.

(Don’t get me wrong — I do love Flagstone!)

So much for going big or going home, though.

Anyway, speaking of gray, our living room’s focal point,

this vintage sorter, is also gray:

And what a sad, sad coincidence . . .

. . . we also have a gray couch + not 1 but 2 gray chairs!

I think we can all safely say:

TOO MUCH GRAY!

So it’s not only time (5 years!?), already,

to change that gray wall color,

but I need to get rid of a gray chair or 2.

First, the walls.

Yes, my heart still belongs to navy blue,

+ who knows?

Maybe I’ll actually love this one!

Navy blue paint is really hard to get right!

Sometimes it’s COBALT!  Or PURPLE!

 

But, if it was a true dark navy,

wouldn’t it look fantastic with my beloved ikat rug, though?

Here it is in our most recent past house, the brick bungalow,

where it also looks great with that dark blue furniture:

This now brings us to the gray chair portion of our living room change.

I’m pretty sure we’re switching out that arm chair

+ getting this pretty mid-century arm chair + ottoman, instead:

Here it is, sans ottoman but in a tad larger photo op:

It doesn’t really look that dark blue,

but I think it will work.

Fingers crossed it won’t blend into the navy blue walls behind it, God forbid.

Uh oh.  Do you see what’s happening?

There’s that pesky color doubt of mine rearing its head again.

So, just in case, I’ve got “PLAN B”, + here ’tis:

It reminds me of a color, Beeswax,

that we used in our riverfront farmhouse

that we built at the turn of the century.

It’s just so darn cheerful,

+ wouldn’t it complement the pretty butter yellow in my rug???

Oh, here we go again.

Stay tuned!

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.

 

I Still Love Moody Gray

 Let’s take a break from gushing about touring 4 barn homes

in Country Living Magazine’s October issue.

Here are 2 of them, about which I recently blogged:

Kit Barn (read my post)

Modern Barn (read my post about it)

Instead, let’s discuss something about which I am obsessing lately.

WHITE WALLS

My current design crush, Emily Henderson (that’s her), loves white walls.

Remember?  She won HGTV’s Design Star when that was still on

I’ve been following her online for years.

To see why I’m such a fan,

look at this genius before + after in her own kitchen.

Before:

After:

I KNOW!!  RIGHT??

Here’s yet more white awesomeness from Emily:

I could go on posting yummy white rooms for days,

but you get my point.

It’s cool . . .

. . . + of course, now I’m yearning to repaint all our walls WHITE!

IN-cluding our beloved power room (??)

(which is now Flagstone by Pittsburgh Paints.)

I’ve been wanting white walls all summer,

+ then I spy this, in one of my favorite blogs, just the other day:

O  M  i  G  o  s  h  !

There’s gray everything, even the ceiling!

And look how great all their design choices look with all that gray!

That lantern:

The sisal carpeted staircase:

Here’s some more gray fabulousness from the same house:

Yet more:

Hold on now.  Let’s study the genius styling in this little area,

because I have been studying it + now wish to copy it.**

**More on that soon.

Let’s break it down.

Natural wood tone table pops nicely against the dark wall

Antique mirror does the same thing:

Stack of books on the floor (note to self: one is askew!):

Wire basket with mags on the floor

Please.

I have enough magazines to have about 80 baskets full of them,

scattered all over the house.

Back to the vignette!

Art piece on the floor:

Bucket o’ logs on the floor (more wood popping with dark):

Wood item  (what is that?) leaning against the corner

Leaning stuff = love

Including multiples of natural wood is a great example

of the repeat an element (at least) 3 times rule,

which of course, we all do.  Right?

Anyway, in conclusion, I’m asking:

Is one beautifully moody gray house enough

to distract me from Emily Henderson’s white awesomeness?

What do you think?

 

 

Finally! Porch Steps!

It’s August already!

What am I doing, still thinking of new plants + containers to buy?

I’m obsessing about these topiaries!

 

How sweet would they look inside a pair of these urns?

So what’s with all this landscaping dreaming,

so close to the end of summer?

Here’s what:

We’re finally getting stairs for our front porch!

This means we can now safely plant things next to them,

+ let’s be real.

Is that not the most up front + important spot in our entire yard?

OMIGOSH!  LET’S DO THIS!

Calm down — back to those porch steps.

Here they are, in progress, just a few days ago:

A few days later, they’re still unfinished

but are sporting their new lattice “skirts” on each side.

So cute! — + matching the skirts underneath the rest of our porch:

G.O. started painting the new stair treads yesterday.

It was a challenge, as it always is, coming up with the perfect color.

Yes, I chose gray, but not just any gray.

It has to “play nicely with” (a.k.a. complement) all the other grays of our house,

most especially those near the new steps,

on the foundation’s stones + the lattice.

By no means do I mean that I want all the grays to match.

No way!

In my world, contrast is often more important than matching.

Since I really want the stair treads + porch floor to “pop” (a.k.a. contrast),

 I decided they needed to be fairly dark.

Here’s the paint color I chose:

Knight’s Armor from Pittsburgh Paints.

Whoa.  That’s DARK! — isn’t it?

Disclaimer:  I really feared that it was too dark.  Yikes.

My instinct was to forge ahead, though.

In the past, I’ve had remorse when I settled on a safer, lighter color

because I’d been too timid to go really dark.

Not this time!

Let’s see how those treads look, in place:

People.  I have only envisioned this bit of happiness for years!

It’s like I’m dreaming!

Notice the porch ceiling.

G.O. has started stripping the old paint off the existing bead board,

+ we’ll repaint it a pale blue.

I like that light fixture (something discontinued from Pottery Barn),

but we’re thinking of replacing it with an outdoor ceiling fan.

Dunno yet.

Next, we’ll need some stair railings + posts + stuff.

Here’s what we have, at left, + here’s what I want, at right.

Stay tuned for a cool transformation (I hope!)

This concludes my porch musings, but wait.

Remember the pair of urns + topiaries that I want to get?

 

My plans are to place one on either side of our bottom step.

Perfect!

Maybe we’ll go shopping tomorrow — stay tuned!

 

2 Islands, No Waiting

I’m assuming that we all watched last night’s Fixer Upper episode on HGTV.

G.O. tried to watch but couldn’t stand all the Chip hi-jinks,

so he excused himself + took refuge in another room.

But that’s not what I wish to type about.

This is:

2 islands, no waiting.

It think it’s genius!

Here’s kind a blueprint-style sketch of the before + after:

Seems to me that I’ve seen this done before.

I tried to find Pinterest images of 2 islands in 1 kitchen, but came up empty.

Anyway, here’s a closer look-see:

The twin islands will work wonders

for the traffic flow between the kitchen + living + dining spaces,

 more so if there was one very long island

Like Joanna did in the French country kitchen, here:

Is it just me, or does anybody else think “too many footsteps!”

from the stove or the sink, all the way around the island, to the refrigerator?

Seriously, I noticed it right away, + I felt sad!

Perhaps the homeowners + Joanna were sad, too.

Perhaps Joanna then opted to break up the kitchen space in last night’s house

with 2 islands instead of 1 airport runway.

Nope.

 She said that the idea for twin islands was the single man homeowner’s!

Well, kudos to him, then!

Meanwhile — here’s a look at his living space:

Lovely, lovely, lovely.

I have always wanted a room with 2 couches facing each other

+ a pair of baseball glove leather chairs.

Also — did you notice the gray woodwork with the white walls?

Next house, for sure.

Stay tuned!

Kitchen Tile — Up + Running!

Look at our kitchen back splash!

We love it!

If you read my recent post about the view from our kitchen window,

here ’tis:

Hi, nice neighbors!

Meanwhile, it’s time to order the light fixtures

for the wall above those windows.

Here’s my choice — the Logan sconce from Ballard Designs:

Red, please!

* * *

But back to the tile.

I chose it because the glaze looks like it was done by hand — so pretty!

Best of all, it’s crackled, which I couldn’t love more!

This adds a lot of vintage style, in my opinion,

+ makes those tiles look as if they could have been original to our house!

Oh, + that pretty but pesky grout left a few traces on the tiles, but no worries.

These can + will be removed later today.

Meanwhile, one more look:

Next up: a DIY range hood project!

Stay tuned!

2 Finalists For Our Bedroom Rug!

I’ve been shopping online for a rug for our bedroom for weeks!

The room is already sporting a dark gray accent wall + pale blue ceiling.

The walls + trim will be white,

 + I want to add a lot of blue accessories.

The pine floor has been sanded + stained a nice, warm brown.

The room measures 9’10” by 11″,

so of course, I am having math anxiety

+ cannot decide between a 4’x6′ or a 5’x7′ rug.

Help!?

* * *

Oh, never mind about that — for now, anyway.

Let’s talk about what I might order!

I’ve whittled down my favorites to these 2 rugs from Overstock.com.

Notice the blue + gray combination — excellent for my color plan!

They are both from the brand Safaveih’s Patina collection.

As you can see, the name Patina refers to the rug’s aged appearance,

which is a ‘thing’ now — new-but-old-looking rugs!

Perfect!

These are cotton rugs + soft,

which is kind of a must-have for our G.O.’s bedroom.

Now all we have to do is decide which rug + which size.

Stay tuned!

“PLAN A” BACK SPLASH TILE

If you’re a regular reader,

you’ll recall that we recently suffered a tile snafu at the Dutch colonial —

it being something about the space between the counter top + the window trim.

It wasn’t working with the 3″ x 6″ tiles I’d chosen:

When I leaped ahead to Plan B, which was penny rounds . . .

. . . this had G.O. promising to change the wood trim

or anything, really, to avoid penny rounds!!

Can you imagine how difficult they must be to install?

So.  Back to Plan A.

Check it out, in progress:

If you think they look great here,

wait until that protective pink paper goes away!

The grays of the tiles + the counter tops look smashing together!

The gap below is the space for our range:

T

So.  What color grout will we use, you ask?

White, like that in my inspiration back splash, here:

heavyontheveggie.jpg

LOV-ing that pretty runner, which is a “thing” now, for kitchens.

I like this one from Overstock.com — called Cross Stitch.

It’s indoor/outdoor, which would be perfect in a kitchen, don’tcha think?

Stay tuned!

Kitchen Countertops Are Here!

 Progress!

Kitchen countertops!

After a slightly exhaustive search, we chose quartz.

We ordered it from Menards,

which is a Midwestern version of Home Depot or Lowes.

A dark gray — Genesis — will top our white perimeter cabinets:

I love the contrast of the dark against the white!

For our oak kitchen island, we chose Flaked Pearl quartz.

Again, there is a nice contrast!

Lovely!

* * *

Well, just wait a minute — here’s where it got scary.

Believe it or not, G.O. measured + ordered them by himself!

WOW — I thought, what could possibly go wrong???

The good news is that nothing went wrong, + they look fantastic!

I should have never doubted him!

* * *

Anyway, I’m especially fond of the beefy ogee edges

+ think they add vintage charm.

Sadly most places charge a hefty additional fee.

I couldn’t remember the exact $ amount, so I asked G.O. just now.

He said something about $30 per linear foot.

Yikes — no can do!

Fingers crossed the gray Genesis quartz will play nicely

with everything else in our kitchen’s ‘color story’. . .

. . . especially my beloved gray backsplash tiles:

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!