Decorating

As a reminder, there are two parts to the our project in the kitchen: the tile backsplash and some new paint. The subway tile backsplash is in! We selected a paint color - Roast Coffee won.

So now comes the hard part, to paint the walls, and that’s been our task this weekend. Saturday morning we spent prepping the kitchen for painting. Prep is definitely the longest and most tedious part of the project, and we took our time hoping to get every piece of trim, edge and corner just perfect. Then Dave moved the fridge all by himself because he’s awesome, and I did some last minute caulking behind the fridge. After that we draped everything in plastic and then we finally got to painting!

We had two colors of brown on the walls in the kitchen as test swatches. After careful consideration of the two, I decided that a third color ought to be in the running. Friday night we picked up a quart of Roasted Coffee and added it in between the original swatches, Soul Chocolate and Gardener’s Soil.

The Roast Coffee swatch won. It didn’t have the reddish tint of the Soul Chocolate, it’s a nice, straight-forward brown. But it has more richness and robust feeling than the Gardner’s Soil. Perfect!

Yesterday, when I left for work, this fun license plate was parked at my house.

Andy, from Working Dog Construction, was there to install our long-awaited tile backsplash in the kitchen. I am delighted! Look how good it turned out.

I love how industrial it looks. I’m hoping it will give us more cachet in the kitchen. I especially love the way he brought the tile down to the floor alongside of both cabinets. Makes me want to tile the entire kitchen down to the floor!! but I’ll restrain myself.

I would highly recommend Andy for all your tile needs. He’s very easy to work with and loves cats and dogs. Check out his website, or get one of his cards from me.

Sunday Amy and I finished the second coat on the nursery walls. Here’s us, proud of our work.

And here’s a shot from this morning in bright sunlight. It’s not really this yellow. Honest.

Our crew chief:

With much patience on the part of Amy and Ali, we figured out an approach to decorating the nursery. Dave and I had already picked out the Magic Garden crib set from Litto Kids, so all the colors the girls and I choose are designed around it.

For the walls we went with a pale yellow with brown undertones that is kin to the yellow in the print. It looked like cake batter and we all had to remind ourselves it wasn’t so that we wouldn’t lick our fingers.

I was so thankful they were here to help, and we got the first coat on the walls Saturday night!

Introducing the baby to the paint.

There are two parts to our mini kitchen makeover. One is to tile the backsplash, and the other is to paint the walls. I’m contracting someone to do the tile work but we’re going to paint the walls ourselves. We’re only painting two of the walls. It’s a fairly small project so that’s why I’m calling it a mini-makeover.

Here are the kitchen walls at the beginning of the project.

 And here are the color tests I painted last night. One is called Soul Chocolate and the other is Gardener’s Soil - I got them both in Satin finish. Because we haven’t seen the sun for the last three days, it’s impossible to photograph this with any natural light. I’ve had to rely on the light in the kitchen, and even with all the lights turned on, the flash is still going off. So the colors you see aren’t very true.

My chair arrived yesterday! I think it looks fabulous and goes perfectly with the rug! The colors couldn’t be a better match. Dave thinks the rug is quite busy but is still withholding judgement. Can I get opinions from any of you about the rug? Or the rug with the chair, whatever. You’re opinionated people, I’m sure you won’t hold back.

Damn if I don’t match the chair, too!

We hit Father and Son Antiques today and scored a vintage phonograph plus speakers. I’m so excited! This is just what I wanted for our front reading room.
Dave and Vince had to run to RadioShack to get the wiring to hook it up, and they got it up and running in no time. (The turntable has an onboard receiver and amplifier, so no other equipment necessary.)
It’s a KLH Model Twenty

Saturday morning we went to the Farmer’s Market, and returned home with two 1-gal. Jasmines, some assorted plants for front-porch pots, and two large hanging plants for the front porch. So pretty! We also got fresh tomatoes, white “Jersey” sweet potatoes and strawberries. We got the front-porch pots and the jasmines planted on Saturday before heading downtown to Artsplosure at 4.

I also stopped by Expressions and picked out the fabric for my chair. This is not, I repeat, not my chair, but it does give a good idea of how my chair will look. Except my chair will have pink welt cord!! I’m so excited. It surprised me how much I like this fabric, but it’s a perfect match for the colors in the rug, and it won’t compete with the florals in the rug, and it’s not solid which is boring. I am very excited and hope to see my new chair in about 45 days.