Kitchen and Bath Updates and a Black and White Fixation

This summer we did some upgrading of our countertops in 

both the kitchen and the master bath.

I realize I never blogged about them.   Why?

 I guess I never thought the kitchen or the bathroom

looked neat enough to take a bunch of photos.  

But since Fifi was coming out for the photo shoot 

I did take a photo of the kitchen right before she arrived.  

The lights were on, as it was a dark and dreary day and so the pic looks yellowish. 

Ugh.

When a few images sneaked onto the blog a few weeks ago,

a sharp eyed reader and pal demanded to know all about them!! So Nita, here you go!

With the new counters we got a new sink!  

Out went the old washboard porcelain vintage sink.  Which I did love.  

Green canisters from an Etsy source and an old tole chandelier 

and then some green toile curtains I made are the other new additions to the kitchen.

One version of my old kitchen (for about a year), 

was this one with the bright green paint on the  beadboard back splash.  

I did get tired of it, and then repainted it white...but it does look pretty here.

Anyway, I love my new counters with the undermount sink

 as it gives me more countertop space to the left and the right of the sink, 

which I really needed.

 Overall the "new" kitchen is still very cottage and cute.

Another new (minor) change was I decided to paint the 

laundry room/ bathroom cabinetry black.  

After I painted my new French Doors black, I thought they looked incredible...

and so I got the idea to do these cabinets. 

I love the look, and even though we didn't change anything else, 

the room feels very different. In a good way! 

 Black is becoming a slight obsession with me, 

and I realized this after doing several projects using black, or black and white. 

 Always a classic, black just has a classy look about it.

This was where the black fixation thing started...

with the exterior paint on the french doors.

WOW! They looked so fantastic!

So then I painted the little french door for the shed black...

And that looked really cool...so then I made a new umbrella cover 

in black and white copying the pattern from the old covering. 

 Its all so chic, in black and white.  

And then the black and white buffalo check curtains (Country Curtains)
in the TV room with the black and white rug (from Overstock)
But I digress...

The other countertop upgrade was in our master bathroom.  

This was a major improvement!

Going from formica to stone is just a huge change!!

We both love the difference it made in how light and airy and rich the bathroom feels.

The countertop is quartz and its in white with grey and bits of aqua and celery green. 

 Really very pretty stone, and so the cabinetry was painted in a pale aqua blue 

to enhance the coloring in the stone.

So that led to me adding a few french crystals in aqua to the gold chandeliers,

 as well as painting the closets in the same shade as the vanity.  

The walls are Simply White and its all very bright and happy in this space.  

This was the former space. Theatrical French Lady Style.

All done in pink and cocoa with gilded accents.  

Pretty, but I think we were all ready for a change.  

(Note the old formica countertops that were a dark grey color.)

When Fifi styled it for the magazine, she put back the pink hooked rugs. 

 It looked really pretty that way too, because my towels have pink in them.

Fifi wanted to know why I didn't paint the door aqua too?

Hmmm, I just thought this time, it should be white. 

But maybe she is right.

I think she probably is right. 

(Speaking of the Fifi Photo Shoot, she sent me a few images I can share...
so here is this one from the bathroom of course!)

Anyway, those are the new changes that missed being called out in the blog, 

so here they are!  Its been a fun and busy summer and maybe the courtyard

and our new fence overshadowed some of these other home improvements. 

Read more »

A Shocking Green Paint for the TV Room

A picture is worth a thousand words, so they say.

This is our tv room, or man cave.  It is possibly the least photographed

space in the house, because I have always kind of hated this room.

With a photo shoot on the way, I kind of felt compelled to do something

about the room I hated so much.  Enter paint. 

If any one thing can change a room, it is the power of paint.

This is a good "before" shot, taken last Christmas. 

 You can see for yourselves the changes that were made.  

We edited out a lot of extra furniture and then

 I added new curtains and a rug and some pillows. 

The only other thing was the paint!  I took a risk and picked 
a green that was out of my norm, I wanted a fun and modern green.

Fun this was not.  
When it started to go on the walls, it was a yellowish green that
looked simply awful.  My son Brandon was helping to paint, and we were laughing but
kind of nervous....however I always think of the idea that most things look horrible before they look 
better, so we continued to reserve judgement until coat number two.  
(Although commentary included words like Frankenstein Green and Nickolodeon Slime.) 
Above you can see the second coat on the left, 
and one coat over the door and the wall on the right.  We painted out
the door because we have a sofa in front of it, so that makes it kind of disappear.  
However, this is pretty scary looking green, don't you agree?

After it was all painted, it was incredibly bright, but not as scary.
Just kind of scary.
We moved around some wall accessories and I added a big clock 

next to hubs favorite chair.  Curtains in a buffalo check from Country Curtains,

and a plaid indoor outdoor rug from Overstock.com were the new additions.
When everything went back up, the room came together nicely.

A vintage painted table in a black floral and some new pillows from

HomeGoods added a bit of femininity to the space.  I am so glad this

room is over, and the end result is that everyone LOVES it!!

I will say that when Mr. Maison Decor saw the first coat, he actually said 

outloud, "how could you pick such an ugly color??".  The next day when 

he got home and it was all finished he yelled, "ITS AWESOME!!".

Phew.  I was getting kinda nervous.  

But again, it's only paint and you can paint over ugly colors. Hahha.  

By the way, the color is Benjamin Moore, Basil Green, in Aura matte.

And it was definitely a two coat job. 

One more look....its a fun modern lodge look, to quote my pal Matthew Mead.

In other news, I am preparing for a Romantic Country magazine shoot

 with noted author, editor and stylist, Fifi O'Neill.  

She will be here next week, and I have tons of other things to get finished.

Colby is already exhausted from all of it as you can tell. 

Read more »