Colour Palette, Part 1

Something happened to me when I bought all those accessories to play with in the living room last month.

Something good.

If you remember, I mentioned I bought a bunch of things to "try" to see what would work. I remember thinking: anything grey, anything teal, anything cognac (or gold), anything turquoise, black or white.

I went to a bunch of stores over a few days. I bought lampshades, pillows, throws and tchotkes. I bought all. the. things.

After my Mom had finished the slipcover, we put it on the couch and started "playing"

First, I decided between two lampshades: gold or grey? The gold didn't look substantial enough, so the grey was quickly decided.

The pillows, too, were pretty much a given. I'd had a heck of a time finding any that might work. So these: navy and dull turquoise made the cut. (I had a brighter, greener turquoise I considered but they lost their shape in less than a week, so they were not going to stay.

By the time I thought to take pictures, we basically just had the blankets to play with.

First, we tried the cream coloured cable knit blanket.

Not enough oomph. I like oomph.

Next up, a soft grey and cream with a cool pattern.

No.

Absolutely no. Though this could work with different pillows if one wanted a lower contrast look. I like high contrast.

Next, the blue blanket. (That's the old lampshade obstructing the navy pillow.)

I loved this. I thought that crazy pillow in the middle would be a wonderful dash of the unexpected and "bohemian."

Next, with the zebra pillow:

I really could not decide which one I liked more--so I sent Mom home to sew up both the day before taking the photos for the reveal. That night, reviewing the photos, I realised the black and white was best--not only did it repeat the high contrast thing going on, but my other two chairs had black and white upholstery. It was meant to be. Whereas, other than my pink flower topped cactus, I had no other pink in the room. (A colour should be repeated at least three times in order for it to look intentional and balanced.)

So, the living room has a colour palette:

neutrals: black, white, cream, grey, navy, cognac
colours: deep blue-blue-green, turquoise.

(photo from the reveal)

That turned out to be valuable information when it came time to re-do my kitchen for the style cure.

From the Weekend: More Painting

The room went from a pink close to all that stuff on the left to that intense blue you see behind them. Emma, my daughter, is on the right.

A true descendant of Tom Sawyer, my daughter invited a friend over to help her paint her room.  But they painted more in the style of Lucy and Ethel--and it went beyond mere head gear. Fortunately, they used Marquee --and got one coat coverage. I don't think the room would have survived a second coat! It cleaned up beautifully, too, thank gawd. (That poor hardwood floor.)

Everyone is happy.

The Purpose of Home.

Mom and my daughter having a chat while we were redoing the living room during the ORC.

I am not a minimalist.

I wanted to be one. But then, I always want to do what the counter cultural popular kids are doing.

My motivation wasn't to save the planet or anything (and indeed, how are you saving the planet by decluttering, exactly?) No, my thinking was: surely, if I have fewer things, I'll be able to keep my home clean and tidy all the time?

But it doesn't work like that. There is a relationship between the amount of stuff you have and your ability to keep a clean and tidy home: but there is an even bigger relationship between your habits and routines and a clean and tidy home. I keep forgetting that.

Over at Apartment Therapy, the editors resurrected the introduction to the ten part series Maxwell Ryan wrote on what AT is all about. His first installment is all about Terence Conran and his message about home. That message goes something like this:

A good looking, well functioning, enjoyable home supports a good life. Or, more pithily, a good home is the foundation of the good life.

Isn't that wonderful?

A bit of pretty.

Sometimes, it is all too easy to lose one's way, to think that the prettiness is the point. I do love decorating, I truly do. This year has been so much fun--even through the stress of a six week challenge and the disruption of painting the kitchen (and the bedroom)--but, in the end, it is all about creating a good looking space that functions well and which we can enjoy. (As an aside, they say that yellow promotes arguments...I am wondering if family meals will be more peaceful now the kitchen is grey.)

This blog, then is a record of how I get my home to the place where we can enjoy a good life. I love that. It's not about the house.

All this tired, hardworking man needs is that blanket.

I mean, I know that. But I'd forgotten, I think. My struggle with establishing good home habits and routines, my preoccupation with clutter, my passion for prettiness--they held a meeting sometime this year and wrested purpose away from the life they were meant to support and onto themselves.

And that's Ok.

For a little while.

However, reading through the series today, I came across this statement:

What you see in a home is where a person is truly at.

(sigh)

and this:

In a very real way, the experience of building a home becomes identical with finding one’s path in life.

Rita and Cane, of the now (sadly defunct) site, This (sorta) Old Life, said, "How we do "house" is how we do life." (Though I am sure their rendering of the idea was much more grammatically correct.)

And though I agree with this, it also makes me sad. Really? Am I doomed to be disorganized? Cluttered? A messy house = a messy mind? It makes the state of the house about me and my mental state. (And to be honest, that's a wee bit narcissistic, isn't it?)

But, of course, I am not the only person who lives here, it is not all about me--but about the state of the dysfunction in our family--and that's hardly better!

My daughter making cookies back in March when the cabinets were yellow. Does she really need the cabinets to be green to make cookies?

But, I don't want to end this post on a down note. It seems clear that what I need to do is establish habits--a routine--that works for me and my crazy life. The next ORC isn't until April (and I'm thinking hard about tackling the back hallway and stairwell). So, I have time to make the little things, the small daily repetitive things my focus. And, to extend the logic, if a messy house=a messy family, I'll need to focus some of my efforts there.

Space

I am not a minimalist.

(I came to that conclusion, sadly, after this discussion at Lisa's blog, Trapped in North Jersey.)

But, oh, my gawd. We took down the cookbook shelf and the microwave shelf and in spite of the awful, awful walls, I love it. The emptiness. The openness.

What an incredible difference it makes to my perception of the space. Especially as I enter--since the microwave isn't there to take up all that visual (and physical) space.

yesterday

 today.

In my ideal kitchen, this stove wouldn't be here at all. Here we would have a custom fit pantry (and separate broom closet) that would match the depth of that chimney flue on the right. It would stop somewhere maybe a foot? short of the doorway.

yesterday (I didn't take a proper shot of the doorway but this does show the cookbook shelf with my utensils hanging off a double row of towel bars. The towel bars will not be put back up.) 

today.

Not a lot of painting done. Mostly repairs. Like this:

We used up so much spackle, we actually had to go out in the snow storm to get more.

I am just craving space.

ETA: After writing the above, I putzed around with the shelves in the dining room.

Before:

After:

And yes! I got my cookbooks on them.

Style Cure 2014: Progress Report

Happy Turkey Day to all my American friends.


My husband has taken on painting the kitchen for me. (He has a week's vacation.) I am so thrilled.

He  decided to do it one half at a time. It is amazing what a can of paint can do. The first pictures were taken Wednesday morning, the second, Wednesday night.

What was once dingy is now fresh and light. All the nickel makes sense again. I am praying it doesn't take on a pink cast of any kind.

In other news, the second shade is done. I am waiting until we paint the window frames to install it. That might happen tomorrow. I am expecting we'll be snowed in.

What do you think of painting the ceiling faintly blue?

From the Weekend: The Shade

Finally, after 12 days, 12 days (and I worked on this shade every single one of them) it is done. From the mistake in my instruction book concerning measurements, (at least, I think it was wrong--I sewed and ripped out the side seams three times) to not buying enough shade tape, to pulling out all my handstitching, to repurchasing the cording, to hanging this and braiding the cord while the shade was fully up, I made every single possible mistake there was to make.

And I have the other one yet to do.

In happier news, you will notice I'm trying out "Elgin Grey" by Ralph Lauren there in the corner. Our testers finally came in.

Style Cure 2014: Day 19

As I've mentioned before, I m doing Apartment Therapy's Style Cure at my own pace (No American Thanksgiving deadline, thank goodness!). That means I am jumping around and doing things out of order. But not yesterday.

Yesterday, Day 19, our instructions were to "Dress up our space and adjust the lighting." Well, I'll save the dressing up part --best done after I paint (which the Cure scheduled for last weekend)--but I did "adjust the lighting."

On the weekend, you may remember I posted this horrendous attempt:

The $5 Nymo shade from Ikea was just too big and too loud--it just didn't play nicely with my vintage ceiling fixture--likely original to the house.

So art deco! I love it.

On Monday, I ran off to Home Depot (always awkward running into your place of employment on your day off) and looked at all kinds of shades. I found this one over in the vanity bathroom lighting section. I'd taken the IKea socket/cord with me to make sure I got something that fit.

You can see the corner sort of relates to my original fixture.

I like it.

I can't wait to paint so I can tidy up that cord.

Supplies:

Second cord set (I bought white) Ikea: $8.99
Shade (Home Depot): $7.96
Small appliance bulb (Home Depot): (2 in the package) $3.98
Total Cost: $20,93