Around the House, Kitchen Update

I don't know how I ever found the time to blog so steadily for three years.

It just doesn't seem to be happening lately.  My office is moving in about five

weeks and designing the new office, planning the move, building a new

corporate identity and building a new website has really taken up a lot of

time the past several months.  But here it is November so I've been

trying to get the house and kitchen ready for Thanksgiving guests.

In particular, I wanted to get the floating shelves stained before the holidays so when we

had a few warm days where I could have the windows open, I decided to get them finished.

Above was the before.

And here they are freshly stained to match the old bin drawers.

I'm happy with the color but I think I want to ding them up a litttle

bit and apply some dark wax that I'll leave in the dings.

My mom visited last week so we drove out to Hudson, NY to pick

up a few new things for the shelves.  If you haven't been to Hudson, NY,

it's really worth the trip.  The town is just packed from one end to the other

with great antique shops, art galleries, restaurants and cafes.

My mom also has great knack for arranging things.

I caught her a few times moving things around on the shelves.

I'm sure these will evolve but I'm really happy with how this looks right now.

I still have to paint the windows before I can call the kitchen done but the snow

outside tells me that I'll have a lot of time indoors coming up to get that done.

Hope to show you around Hudson, NY sometime soon.

A Color Adjustment

It was fun reading all of your comments and suggestions.  I tried not to reply

to any comments that would sway you one way or the other. I don't think

there's any one right or wrong answer but I was surprised  to hear so many

people suggest dark navy or black.  By the time I had done the post...

...I had already gotten a sample pot of Farrow & Ball Down Pipe.

The color is meant to imitate lead and I thought it would give an  industrial feel.

I should also add that I REALLY wanted to use Farrow & Ball.

I had gotten as far as buying a quart of Lamp Room Gray and painted one

of my window casings before deciding it was a little too blue for the cabinets

but I absolutely LOVE the paint!  It's got a beautiful consistency, paints on

smoothly and dries to a beautiful finish.  I'm completely sold on its quality.

In the end it was the perfect gray that I won out.  I didn't feel I was too far

off.  During the day, the old gray was reading a little lavender.  I went back

to the historical colors and found a gray that was a little darker and drabber

and I think it's perfect.  Benjamin Moore Chelsea Gray.  The darker tone really

highlights the marble and the hue give me the historical look I was shooting for. 

"Christmas Gift" amaryllis is late to the party but she's putting on a great show.

You can see the contrast of the two colors on top of the column on the left.

And the entire column on the right has been painted in Chelsea Gray.

Between the dishwasher and refrigerator is a new cabinet

that will have doors made from the old store counter...painted

in the Chelsea Gray.  I love the contrast of this gray with the marble.

The little wine rack next to the refrigerator has shelves made from the

store counter mahogany that I showed in an earlier post.

And you also get a glimpse of another color I've painted in the

small recess next to the refrigerator.  

(Oops, the flowers have moved over to this shot.  That's bad styling.)

Above the counter next to the refrigerator, I've designed a little built-in cabinet

that will house a small microwave, a TV and leave a little extra room for 

cookbooks and some white pottery.  My thinking is that the dark color

(Benjamin Moore Deep Creek) will help disguise the microwave and TV,

highlight the white pottery placed in front of it AND provide balance to the

black armoire that will go over in that right corner where all the crap is.

We'll see how that works out.

The sunshine pours in through the French doors on winter mornings.

While the cats sunbathe, you'll find me here...painting.

Kitchen Ceiling and Cabinet Paint Tests

There hasn't been a lot of progress on the kitchen the last few weeks but

the holidays gave me some time off that I was able to step right in and get

some things done without getting in the way.  The walls are now all primed

and ready for paint but most of my time was spent on the ceiling.

The wood planks took quite a lot of prep work, filling and sanding before a coat of primer went

on.  And then I walked around and marked trouble spots with blue tape.  There were quite a few

rough spots, nail holes and dents that needed to be filled and sanded down before touching up

with a second coat of primer.  If you ever decide to put in a planked ceiling, let me suggest doing

as much of this work before installing the wood.  It's neck- and shoulder-breaking work.

And finally on Sunday I put on the first coat of semi-gloss.  It's Benjamin

Moore Decorator's White in Aura.

It's really brightened up the whole room.  This is one of the things about the

old bakery from my hometown that I loved so much.  It seems so clean.

I really want to lighten these cabinets so paint seems pretty certain.

I've been playing with some paint to see what it might look like on the cabinets.

I bought some rosettes at Home Depot--the little things that would go in the top

corners of door or window casings--to experiment with.

I would put a lot more effort in the final finish but these are good

"sketches," if you will, of layering a few different colors.  

I used colors #2 and #5 from the Farrow & Ball paint samples

I made up which are Lamp Room Gray and Mole's Breath.

This is Lamp Room with a wash-n-wipe of burnt umber

acrylic paint that was thinned down juxtaposed against

the Carrara marble counter in my bathroom.

I think it's a little dirty looking.

This is Lamp Room with a little Mole's Breath

brushed in the recessed and then rubbed down to

almost bare wood in a few spots.

I like this one.

This one is Mole's Breath undercoat with a dry brushing

of Lamp Room over the top.  The effect is just a little

bit darker than the previous one.

I also like it.

I want to try a darker gray glaze on these to really highlight

the details.

Here's the three of them next to the stainless.

Excuse the fingerprints.

This is a little section of the cabinets that's had the finish sanded

off a bit.  Ideally, I'd like some of this grain to show through so it

might take a delicate dance of brushing paint on and caressing it off.

I only get one chance to get it right so I'll do some more samples

and perhaps look for a piece of furniture I can buy and experiment on.

Stay warm!