Choosing a family room paint color in 45 minutes...

A few weeks ago I mentioned our ongoing home improvement updates in "Here we go AGAIN".  In some rare feat, John got the drywall/painter to begin in 2 weeks...only no one really told me until the night prior to arrival.  Hmmm.

So Wednesday was super fun choosing a family room color between working at The Market and my evening cooking class.  Not to mention all the furniture is under plastic.  I'm happy to say I DID IT!  45 minutes, while placing a French cheese pre-order, gathering materials for the cooking class and dealing with Pierre's stranger-in-my-house anxiety. 

I brought home 2 books bulging with Benjamin Moore's entire color collection.   I was really leaning toward a red paint again, as the previous color was "Merlot", and I have loved it for 3 years.  I had a clear red (think tomato-red) in mind.  John also suggested a shade of orange, possibly a dark terracotta (what strange alien has taken possession of this man?) that a cousin has in her kitchen area.

Well, we were both wrong.  I didn't want to purchase new furniture for this room, so I needed to work with the upholstery which has an olive-green tone to the browns.  Most of the oranges were running to corals or brick and the clear reds were a touch too modern for the overall look of the room.  So I went with a color called "Glazed Pear 1092".

It's a color similar to a bosc pear with a nice caramel tone.  It matched well with the couch and furniture, looked great with pure white trim and melded well with the olive green of the living room, as there is a french door that separates them.

Here are a couple shots I took with and without flash at 5pm and 8pm:



I think this piece of artwork needs an olive green background?


We are all shocked at how much we love the color!  Thinking about some roman shades for the windows, even though I like them bare, it might add a little pizazz.  Still have a bit of organizing and decorating to do....I'm avoiding the computer cord cluster. 

Here we go AGAIN!

In the Midwest, it's customary to host a high school graduation party for your children.  Most are done in an open house fashion and the June Saturdays are usually fully booked!  We are not an exception, and it's a really nice time to get to see family and friends!

Our "baby" is graduating this year and the plans are already in motion.  The date is set, tent is booked, the menu tentatively a go and invitations will be ordered shortly.

Each previous "Graduation Party" has been a learning experience.  Lessons in order of importance;
1) Start painting the house earlier than April
2) Do not leave vacuuming until the last minute as the power might go out
3)30 lbs. of pulled pork is just enough for 250 people at an open house.  37 lbs. is too much.
4)Glittery table confetti takes a minimum of 2 years to clean up out of your driveway/yard
5)Do not get black frosting on your cake even if it's the school colors-it makes people's teeth scary; ditto on the edible photo transfer...no one wants to eat your kid's eye, so you have to.  Creepy.

John didn't blink an eye when I started discussing changing my kitchen cabinet hardware, painting the hallway, having a few minor drywall repairs done, installing a couple new light fixtures, changing the living room curtains and more.  In fact, he even went through the house and made a few suggestions of areas that need to be freshened up, helped me drill new holes for the cabinet hardware and choose paint for the hallway.  (Can you read my shock and awe?) 

The project list is long, but do-able.  My goal is to have the majority of the interior work accomplished before March when we will begin on the exterior/yard/gardens/shed...

 Fun new lampshade for "project room" to hang above work table!

I purchased Behr paint in "Tea Cookie" for the hallway, a very light and creamy yellow.  (Why I can't find a photo online is beyond me)  I needed a neutral since all of our bedrooms, baths and laundry room open to the hallway.  You've already seen my project room with it's brown paint, my bedroom in plum, another bedroom is painted a peacock blue and Jamie is working on "Couture"  paint;

It looks muted/darker than the picture (thank goodness) and I think we may do a silvery grey glaze over it to tone it down a bit.  We have some funky galvanized metal shelving and baskets along with white trim, sheers and blinds and a soft black paint on the furniture.  Cross your fingers! 

The girls bath needs a bit of drywall repair and a paint job, which I may use the "Tea Cookie" in here as well.  I also picked up some great towels in Jade:

Looks exhausting when I see it all in print.....

PROJECT ROOM!

It's only January 6 and already changes are rolling along in our household! Our Julia works and goes to the community college in Ann Arbor and just moved into her first official apartment!

Julia has held a prime piece of real estate in this household since the remodel of 2001-2.  It is going to turn into my "Project Room".  Note that I did not say "office" or "workspace", that is because I have no real intention of doing serious work in this room.  I intend to create a cookbook, frame pictures, paint watercolors (which I am terrible at), learn more about coffee roasting and do lots of daydreaming in my own little space with a south window overlooking my hollyhocks.  Hence;  projects.... fun projects.  

We painted her room last summer (the lime green was making me crazy) a lovely "coffee with cream" color, and kept the bamboo roman shades and white trim.  Now I'm looking at some fun accent colors!

http://www.design-seeds.com/   I'm loving this site, since it gives me color combination ideas that I wouldn't have thought about!  I'm loving the blues!  I also went to the design-seeds website and did a color search with their funky little "color value" bars.  This way I created the color I had already painted and it automatically took me to palettes that contained that color!  Genius!  I am so in love with this palette:

I LOVE all of the options here and can't wait to get started! 

I have a bit more cleaning to tackle before photographs, and some rearranging of furniture.  Hopefully I can share some "projects" with you soon!

Rainy day projects...

I'm not on a quest for "House Beautiful", I would be happy with "House Nice"! So the rainy days have gotten me busy. This week's mission is to repaint the living room and trim. For the record, I hate painting trim. It's a thankless, ugly job that takes so much time, just to be scuffed and dusty in 2 weeks or less! But I'm doing it...ugh!

John created supper last night (I was exhausted, see above) and it was delicious! The salad was the star of the show; Greens, smoked cheddar, sliced apples and walnuts with the best dressing of:

1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/3 cup Sherry Vinegar
2-3 Tablespoons Maple Syrup (the real stuff, we have local at The Market)

Put all ingredients in a glass jar and shake until emulsified!

Next on the agenda is decor...are cookbooks considered decor? The household says "NO!" So today I may try my hand at oil painting all these rainy day colors into a masterpiece.

By the way, the photo is not representative of the living room...I went with a green color. Feel free to leave comments on the plum, it's for the dining room! The tile is the new kitchen backsplash!