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We couldn't find a 3rd color for the trim, so we're going to use the Saybrook Sage on the kitchen walls with Greenmount Silk as the trim, and then the opposite in the family room. Then we're going to paint the arches in Raisin Torte, which we have in the living room. It will match the arch in the doorway between the living room and kitchen. Complicated, I know, but maybe I'll get a photo up of what I mean. Or you'll just have to see it when you come to the house.
It totally looks black here, but it's really a nice deep red/burgundy sort of color. I think it will look good. If not, it's only a little bit that we'll need to paint over.
Alan met with the electrician today, first putting together a really spiffy map of where the lights will go. It reminds me of how the kids used to draw maps of their ideal houses on graph paper when they were little. Alan just kept on doing it.
I'm writing to avoid more packing and organizing.
OMG... we suddenly found out/realized that demolition will start Monday the 17th, but we're leaving town for a week this Friday -- so suddenly we have to get everything out of the kitchen and bedrooms, and pack to get ready. I'm suddenly feeling quite overwhelmed. On top of that, Alan's back won't let him do any lifting - he did too much last weekend - so I'm carrying the load for now. Yikes.
At least we've been having fun with paint colors. It looks like Saybrook Sage (Benjamin Moore) is going to be the kitchen color, and we're thinking Greenmount Silk for the family room and kitchen ceiling. They both look yummy with the counter and cabinet. Just trying to find a nice sandy colored trim. We're going for the coastal California look I guess.
As I page through Ellen's design books (I think she has them all!) I am lured toward a kitchen with all kinds of wild colors that make you sit up and take notice. But mostly I don't want people to walk in and say, "Ooh, look at your kitchen!" I want it to be useful, convenient, and make cooking and cleaning a graceful, elegant dance toward a delicious meal. A place where Alan & I can work together without crashing into each other. A room that will house kids (and grandkids!) and friends and relatives and feel warm and inviting. But mostly I want to cook without having to hold things up to the light to see them, to have enough space to prep without having to stop to reorganize or do dishes, and to be able to find what I need when I need it. Actually, what I really want is a cook, and since Alan has become quite the chef, I want a kitchen HE likes to work in!
The paint swatches on the wall are drying. maybe we'll have a decision soon.
What does it say about me when I no longer run into people I know at the zoo (when I was there last Sunday, there were hundreds of toddlers and their parents there), but I do run into old friends when I go to kitchen design stores?
A trip to Lights Beautiful in Ventura yesterday ah - shed light - on this area of mystery. Way too many choices - cans and fixtures, CFL, halogen, LED, xenon, incandescent, undercabinet, warmth, color, T-5, transformers, Title 24, intensity blah blah blah. I will admit right here that none of this makes any sense to me whatsoever. I'm still at the evolutionary stage where electricity is nothing short of magical, and as long as I can turn on a switch and see better than I could before, I'm pretty happy. Fortunately I have Alan to interpret all the letters and numbers, and he seems to actually get it, or at least puts up a good front.
We were hoping to use the new LED cans that recently came out, but because of our slightly sloped ceiling on the sink side of our kitchen (another architectural wonder of our very strange house), we won't be able to without them sticking out on one side (they don't yet make the LED cans that will do that). So it looks like we'll have several - 6? 8? fluorescent cans along the kitchen ceiling which will fool people into thinking our 2 sides of the kitchen actually go together (tying the room together nicely).
Then we'll probably replace the old fixtures in the family room with these perhaps, or something like them:
Then under the cabinets we'll probably go with fluorescent lights that look a bit like this:
I guess I have learned something. I learned how to spell fluorescent.
It totally looks black here, but it's really a nice deep red/burgundy sort of color. I think it will look good. If not, it's only a little bit that we'll need to paint over.
