the little things

indoor dining

one of the pieces of furniture we own that i love is our dining room table.  it seats 8 (possibly 10), and fits us perfectly.  it's long and narrow and fits the space that it's in perfectly as well.  the problem: we don't have enough seating.  when we first got it i think it came with 8 chairs, but that was 15 years ago.  i can't even tell you how we lost 2 chairs, but at our old house it didn't matter because we had a bench.  when we moved into the new house, i sold the bench in a yard sale because i hated that bench.  it had grooves in it that caught every crumb of food that the kids dropped and it was hard to clean and disgusting.  j has brought up buying a new dining room set, but i can't really justify spending thousands of dollars on a new set when we have a perfectly functional table that fits us.  the chairs are old, but they are not falling apart, we just don't have enough of them.  since we only need seating for two, i had every intention on buying either a new bench or host and hostess chairs.  i really like the way host and hostess chairs mix it up, yet bring together the look of a dining room.  i can already hear j saying how the chairs don't match.  no, they don't match, but they all go together. 

as you can see in the above photo, none of the chairs have to be the same but they all coordinate to accomplish a great look. also see here.

 

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we have ladder back chairs so i want the end chairs to have a different look.  i'm liking the look of wicker.

 

i think any of these would work for the look i want.

i looked, but could not find a photo of my table.  i would take one, but the kids are doing their school work there right now, so later perhaps.  

save the pink?

i just got the estimate today about the pink bathroom.  to have the tub refinished and glazed white along with the surrounding pink tile will be $650.  it's not as much as i thought it would be, so it's really worth considering.  on the other hand, camryn is having a fit about getting rid of all the pink- "MOM!!!  IT'S AN ANTIQUE!!"  boy, she really bought into it when i was trying to sell it and convince myself that we should save the pink bathroom.  well now that i have come to my senses(pink just really isn't going to work for me...i have to be true to myself and this is my house.  well, mine and jay's but i don't think he'll mind if the bathroom is no longer pink) she is still fighting to keep the pink.  once i get it the way i want it, she'll be a fan i'm sure. 

i have something to this effect in mind... 

 

attic mag

 

unknown

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sense and simplicity

unknown

coco cozy

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better homes and garden

light and airy is what i like.  do you see a pattern with these bathrooms?YES!!  wainscoting!! love it!!!

instead of baseboard, we have tile bordering the floor.  i mentioned that i wanted baseboard and found out that my husband thinks there should be tile in the bathroom, not wood.  i disagree.  wood works too!!!

striped walls

they drive me crazy.  when i was younger, it used to be polka dots.  they made me dizzy even when i wasn't moving.  i'm pretty much over it, but now it's stripes. they just bug me and i am seeing designers doing this wall treatment a lot.

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better homes and gardens

how do you feel about striped walls?

random things that have been going on around here...

we celebrated a birthday...

we made it through track season for high school, still one more week of practice and a track meet for the rest of us...

carter lost his first tooth...

we had a day warm enough for water fun, but it's been june gloom ever since...

and the kitchen is still blue and the cabinets still need painting.  still confused as to what to do- i have read/heard so many different things about what i need to do to paint the cabinets: sand, don't sand because of lead, degloss, don't degloss because of fumes.  i stopped at the paint counter at lowe's and was told that i didn't need to sand or degloss, just clean real well and prime with zinsser primer which will adhere to anything. 

anybody out there got any other helpful tips?

question

i know i have readers, just no commenters.  but i need a question answered.  i was just wondering as far as furniture and decorating your home, do you buy/do what YOU like, or what is practical for your family?

for example, i know a woman with 6 children and her living room still looks like it should be in a magazine.  nice furniture, everything pristine down to the drapes.  just the way she likes it.  i am in awe everytime i go to her house.

another woman with only 2 kids, turned her entire living room into a playroom and all of the furniture is beat to hell because that is where the kids play when they are not outside.  oh, and the more friends, the merrier!  she is fine with that because that is what the room is for.

i have an appreciation for both rooms. i also have issues with both of these examples.  in the former home, the kids mostly play in their rooms and are not allowed to be in certain rooms of the house. as a kid, i would think it would be hard to be comfortable living that way, but if that's all you know growing up, then i guess it's ok for them.  in the latter home, yeah, the kids are allowed to have fun and enjoy the room but even with all of the toys picked up and put away, all you see is a beat up room, with beat up furniture. and you know they will beat it up, even if it starts out looking like this:

because they will do things like this:

also, i am not sure i would be willing to give up a living room for that purpose.  it's okay, call me selfish.  if i had an extra room to dedicate to that sole purpose i would.  keyword being extra.  not my living room.

so, i am asking you.  style or function?  or is there a happy medium?

beautiful

i came across these dreamy photos by ashlee raubach.  i absolutely want this kitchen!

(sigh)

confession time

i painted my kitchen.  i painted it with a cool color.

  

i really do love silver sage.  i just don't love it in my kitchen.  it's been up for a couple of weeks so i have tried to get used to it, but it's just not working.  you can't tell in the above photo, but it is totally blue during the day, and green at night. 

i have to repaint the kitchen. 

i was also going to sand and paint the cabinets but jay is now doing that part because there is a chance that they were painted with paint that had lead in it and it's not a good idea to sand.  we were researching liquid deglossers and found that the fumes are really strong so jay will handle it all when track is over.  i guess that's june sometime.  in the meantime...

i have to repaint the kitchen.

unbelieveable

how bad is my luck?  now that i have decided to go with a warm yellow, I CAN'T FIND THE RIGHT YELLOW!!!!

there is like a katrillion different yellows out there!  i have narrowed it down to a golden color and i thought behr's warm muffin would do the trick- it's a beautiful golden yellow

photos from disboards 

i love that color!  i had that color in my old house as an accent wall in my family room.  you can kinda see it here:

 

well, of course my kitchen is cursed!  warm muffin is too dark!!!

so after sampling a few more things that didn't work, i had a thought.  restoration hardware's butter is really warm and creamy and lighter than warm muffin...

so back to restoration i went.  no butter.  not even a paint chip to get matched.  only a gallon was available and there was no way i was going to pay $40 for a can of paint i wasn't sure about.  besides that, any restoration paint i am sure about will be color matched somewhere else because rh paint is streaky and doesn't cover well.  so, i went with the next color, that is a little darker.  saffron.

 

you can't tell here, but this paint is exactly the same color as warm muffin!!!

WHY ME?!!!!

excuse me while i go curl up in a fetal position in a corner and suck my thumb.

silver sage

i have been hearing wonderful things bout this color from restoration hardware

 

but it's $40 a gallon.  yipes! so i figure what the hey and go to restoration hardware and get a sample for $3.95. 

oh boy do i love this color!!!  it's a light green, but looks bluish gray- it's weird, but i love it! i was sure i had it folks- THE color!!!  ok, you know it's coming...

BUT

it's been on my wall for a few days now and i feel it is too cold for my kitchen.  i was thinking that there is enough brick and red tile to make it warmer, but when i see it, i see a kitchen with state of the art appliances, stainless steel everywhere and a cold feeling.  i am drawn to warm rooms and i want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen so i need warm, cozy and inviting.  i want a color that makes me feel like i don't want to leave.  silver sage says, this kitchen is a nice place to visit, but i'd rather be somewhere else.

does that make sense?  am i putting too much feeling into painting this kitchen?  i know my husband is like just pick a color already!!!

i just don't want to pick a color i am going to regret because i will be really upset if that happens.

ugh!!!!!

when i dream, i dream in color

I may not get the kitchen done before the end of march after all.  i still am colorless!!!  ben moore STILL did not have the paint sample of dried parsley so i had to take the paint chip to home depot and have them color match a sample for me.  fortunately, their samples are on sale for $2.94 right now.  i got home, put it on the wall and bleh.  just bleh.  i don't hate it, but i don't love it. i am looking for love right now. 

jay looked at all of the paint chips on the kitchen counter yesterday and just shook his head and told me i am obsessed.  he's right about that.  yesterday morning i had a dream that i was in someone's house with the perfect blue in their kitchen and i loved it.  what's odd about that is that i said i didn't want a blue kitchen, but it looked fabulous on the wall and i HAD to know the color!  i asked this woman what the color was and just as she was about to tell me- i woke up!  i woke up frustrated that i didn't get the name of the color, but then had to laugh at myself because really.  was she gonna say a color in my dream and then in reality i would miraculously find this color in a paint store somewhere?!

yeah, i am pretty obsessed.