AAAAAIGH OVERLOAD

This isn't really a news post, but I just wanted to say.. Fabric.com has a "design wall" feature that lets indecisive sorts like me trip merrily through pages and pages of fabric swatches and end up with something like this (click to view full-size):

My quest for fabrics to support the new master-bedroom-color-scheme has come to a standstill here. Now what? I WANT THEM ALL.  ALL!  MUAH, HA-HA HA. HA.



Okay. Seriously though. I need a curtain fabric (more on that later... I have evil plans for the closet doors), and I'm thinking of making some pillowcases in fun prints.  There's actually not a lot of opportunity to coordinate things--it's a small space--and I figure the pillows are sitting there on the bed anyway, so... might as well.  In addition, I'm thinking of doing some weirder things (matting some artwork with fun fabrics... wrapping drawer fronts... etc.), which I think would be good outlets for the more graphic/expensive prints, since I wouldn't need much.

I did order the duvet cover from my "inspiration" post, and would like to take a moment to thank the Mr.. This will be master bedroom duvet number four, I believe (don't fret: I'm an Overstock/Smart Bargains/IKEA fiend), and thus far he's demonstrated incredible patience with my bedding schizophrenia.  This one's the one, folks. I can feel it.*

*By this I mean both the man, and the duvet.

So It Begins

Hello, again. And welcome to episode one of the "Probably Ill-Advised Pre-Thanksgiving DIY Kitchen Shakedown." Yes, it's November. And No, we haven't started yet. All in good fun.

Item number one on the agenda: countertop.  You may remember from past postings that half of our kitchen is charming (and lovingly re-finished) hand-crafted "butcher block." The other half is scary wood-trimmed laminate.

After over a year of scrubbing away the stains (and I mean STAINS.  This counter has been known to soak the printing off of plastic bags. Seriously. For weeks it advertised "AT&T Wireless." There was also the Maraschino Cherry Juice Incident of '09.)... we're finally doing something about it.

I should have documented the whole tortuous process, but here's the summary:

US: Quartz is cool, give us some samples.
[a few months pass]
US: Right, we forgot. Quartz is still cool. Let's get more samples.
ME: I like the brown. No, the gray. No, the gray-brown. The brown.
LOWE'S: Your kitchen is too small.
HOME DEPOT: So, the brown?
[crickets]
ME: AAAIGH! NO BROWN!
THE MR.: Seriously?
[there is much shuffling of samples.]
US: We meant granite.
HOME DEPOT: Your kitchen is too small.
LOCAL PLACE: Hello. We have nice slabs.
US: Our kitchen is too small.
LOCAL PLACE: We love you anyway. Also, we cost less.

We went skipping around the slab yard, and despite being momentarily dazzled by some sort of Chilean silver-impregnated something-or-rather that we would have had to sing to sleep every night, we made a decision.

Say hello to Slab.

So, yes, it's brownish, but it has a lot of black in it and a lot of depth.  The picture is kind of bad. Trust us--it's a lot more exciting than the flattish brown Quartz we were initially after. (I started thinking of it as 'mouse putty,' and, well, that's not what you want to prepare your meals on.) 

They came to measure for it a couple of days ago, and it'll be installed next week sometime. (Another plus to Local Place:  both HD and Lowe's claimed it would take "at least" four to six weeks.) In the meantime, I'll be taking 'before' pictures...

The Search for The Perfect Curtains

Ah, internet, you are failing me. Anybody know of some swanky boutique fabric shop online that sells tastefully mod yet understated large-scale prints? It's going to be hard to describe what I'm looking for, which is perhaps part of the problem (who..am.. i?) The back room has two big windows plus big french doors with no mullions. When we're back there, in the daytime, it's lovely. There are times, though, that it's not; like, when we're not there and the sun beating in drives the thermostat crazy, or when it's dark, and the entire wall amounts to a large, dark, light-sucking void. (This is especially troublesome when you're home alone after your dog has tried to make a snack of a baby bunny in the back yard and you're convinced that said baby bunny's mother is going to come after you, Bunnicula-style, for continuing to fraternize with the beast.) Right. Anyway. The point is, there are good reasons to make curtains. The windows already have some really nice roman shades on them, so I'm concentrating on the french doors. I'm envisioning an oversized drapery rod with finials, and those big rings with clips on the bottom to hold up the fabric. C.f.:

They shouldn't be too fussy, because most of the time, it won't be pulled across the doors. Just when we need it, to, you know, hide us from angry rabbits. So.. the fabric. After searching (fruitlessly) I realized I was envisioning something kind of similar to a binder I bought at Target. Unfortunately, the company that makes them isn't in the business of drapery fabric. (I checked.): They're all pretty fun. I have the one on the bottom right--the wavy orange/green/blue-gray--which, coincidentally, are pretty great colors for what I need it for. Anyway, the search turned up some possibilities: Retrodepot's "Looped (Citrus)": (probably too bright, but I like the scale and the pattern):

Totally different, but I like it (Waverly "Chippendale Fretwork"):

Hmm? (Waverly "Garden Lattice"):

And another: (Waverly "Pindot"):

Anyway. I'm not super excited about any of them. It can't compete too much with the orange plaid couch; the roman blinds are pretty neutral, so I'm not too worried about clashes there. I'm open to suggestions. It may be worth mentioning that I got a lot of leftover orange plaid back from the upholsterer--I could imagine using some of it as a stripe, or something, but don't want it all to get too match-y. Thoughts?

NEW HOBBY.

Half in. Half out. Leaves my options open.

Dear Blue: It's not you, it's me.

So, an update on the kitchen. I last left you with an oh-so-tantalizing teaser about painting the newly-installed textured wallpaper. Mom and I worked hard on getting it painted before moving weekend, but that ended up learning me some lessons:

1. The cheapest paint you can find is thin, drips a lot, and doesn't cover well. Which is, you know, why it's cheap.
2. That wallpaper sucks up a lot of paint. You need more than you think you do.
3. The right blue is really hard to choose. I was going for a lighter-toned gray/cadet/robin's egg blue, that wouldn't be too dark or overpowering and wouldn't look pastel. Then you have to worry about it looking too purple sometimes, or too green... Anyway.
4. Our kitchen has about twelve light sources, and every one of them makes the color look different. (The overhead lights, the light over the sink, the range light, the window... not to mention the shadowy areas under the cabinets.) I found a color I was happy with in one area, that looked wrong in two others.

I was trying to be adventurous and use color and all that, but in the end, the color I'd spent so long choosing was all "It's a Boy!" powder-blue, which managed to make the taupe in the rooms on either side of it look pink. So we stepped back a bit, and in the wee hours of the morning the night before the new floor came and the move was to begin, we repainted it a safe cream. Here's a wall, against the new floor, RE-painted in Ralph Lauren, "Chalk White:"

I have very carefully not shown you pictures of the opposite cabinets. They're topped with, we think, handmade "butcher block" countertops (2x2s bolted together, apparently). They had a dark stain on them and a crazy-thick layer of shellac, which wasn't in too great shape. I'll save the rest for a post with pictures, but they have undergone a magnificent transformation, thanks to the combined efforts of the Mr., my sister-in-law, and my father-in-law. The countertop that IS pictured is laminate with an edging that matched the old countertops; our hope is to replace that whole thing with a stone or solid-surface top. That way, we get to keep the great wooden countertops, but we'll also have a harder-wearing surface. More to come!