Showing posts with label paint. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paint. Show all posts

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Backsplash for now

Check me out!



Do you guys remember this?

And how I was agonizing over a backsplash here? And here?   And talking about trying something dashing with paint here? Like this?


Well I finally figured out three important things about me and my backsplash dilemma.


  1. I do not have the patience to paint fake tile or the ability to deal with it looking craptacular.
  2. I do like the fact that paint is cheap and I can change it whenever I feel like it with nothing involving electricity or power tools.
  3. I love stripes.
So I ended up with this 

I am kind of loving it. The paint is 3 different shades of Martha Stewart.  Sandpiper is the off white, grey squirrel is the medium warm grey, and a metallic called eagle is the darker stripes and the "yum!".  And how great is yum, btw?  I like the idea behind EAT letters, but something about being commanded to ingest in a kitchen leaves me feeling full of guilt and regret.  I probably should have put that chocolate cake down, huh?  But the kitchen TOLD me to EAT!  I had to!  "Yum!" on the other hand, is just how you want people to feel in the kitchen.  yum!

I used frog tape to make sure the lines were nice and straight.  It was totally worth it, btw.  Here's a video 

The husband also demanded that I use, like, a square and a straight edge and stuff for measuring it all out.  Fine, sure, whatever.  (He was right, it looks great and square and awesomesauce.)

The yum is in a font I found linked from How About Orange's blog called "lobster".  I thought it was kinda modern, kinda fun.  I did not think "oh that will be nice and full of straight lines and easy to paint" which I totally should have thought, because it's all swirly and NOT easy to paint.  Yeezsh.  I actually cut out a template and taped it to the wall behind the stove for a day or two.  I wanted to make sure I really liked it before I committed.  


My friend Tommy's mom was giving away a basically brand new, all white stove.  I have been wanting to replace the black and white monster, but did not have much motivation to pay actual money for a new stove.  But hey, free!  And they delivered it!  Talk about good friends.

Now I just need it go be mild enough weather that I can pop the windows out and finish painting the frames white.

In the mean time I am just going to enjoy the yum!  

yum!

Read more >>

Friday, April 22, 2011

shopping for others

I am an over-researching, indecisive shopper... when I am shopping for myself.

Shopping for others is totally much easier and so I am today shopping for my friend Roman who bought a big huge fancy house and needs an accent color, some carpet, and some lamps for his bedroom.

(The background color is the current color he has the room painted, and the bed is similar to what he has in there.)


He asked for a carpet that's not boring, and said he hadn't found a green he liked yet, but given the other colors he gave me (including the burgundy he said he liked) it really seemed like it fit in to the room.  He was also looking for lamps, but I threw in some bedding just because.)

It's not super fancy, but it does fit into his style of house.  

The FLOR tiles can be picked up and taken out if he decides he hates the green stripes in three or four years.  The lamps really work with the style of his furniture.  Roman seems like a kind of stately, modern kind of guy with a traditional streak.  I think it works for him.  
Read more >>

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Finishes

I think, at this point, that I have picked all the major finishes for the kitchen.

We ordered cabinets (Kraftmaid, shaker style door, color: Kaffee in cherry), so that's definitely picked. While I was picking out the cabinets, I picked out a countertop (Silestone, in Blanco City).

Now that I think about it, although I knew the styles of things I wanted, I ended up kind of starting with the backsplash, which I am going to use this awesome tile from L'esperance Tile. It looks like squirrels and oak leaves and acorns! My front yard is covered with all three of these things. The tile are really cute, and the seller also makes field tile, so I should be able to do the backsplash in mostly the 'craftsmen glaze', white, peppered with squirrley oakey acorney tiles here and there. The white, incidentally, is not a pure shocking shiny appliance white. It's kind of natural white, I guess. In any case, it's really pretty and it goes really well with the countertops and cabinets.*

I kind of assumed I would paint the kitchen the same green as the rest of the house, which is a sort of light olive. It's called Bamboo Shoot (Valspar) but when I look at bamboo shoot on Valspar's website, it looks awful beige to me. Maybe they changed the color or something. But that's about the right color. I could also try to paint it turquoise, similar to the current kitchen color but a little deeper. The current kitchen's color is a little too baby blue for me.

Also, we are doing a ceramic or porcelain tile floor. We had one in the last kitchen we remodeled and it was basically indestructible and never looked dirty. That was pretty awesome. My husband thinks we can put one of those radiant mats underneath, so it will be heated. We did look at some natural stone (slate, mostly) in a store for the floor, but neither of us really liked the texture. It's kind of .... chippy? Something.

*Incidentally, the L'esperance tile person on Etsy has been really fantastic, and sent me some sample color and sizes of tile. Etsy is so full of awesome people.
Read more >>