Last spring we embarked on another little kitchen refresh in our 1950s ranch house.  Yep, these days it takes me a whole year to post afters.Before I take you on the tour, here is how the kitchen looked when we viewed the house before buying in 2007:

What I love about this kitchen redo is minor change equals major impact.  The first kitchen changes happened in 2008.

This isn’t a huge kitchen renovation.  We only switched out the refrigerator and the dishwasher so all appliances are the same finish, stainless steel.  We kept the existing granite countertops and tumbled marble backsplash–although the color of the marble actually was pink and didn’t coordinate well with the granite, which complicated my paint selection process.  I wanted to go white on the cabinets, but it just didn’t look right with the marble and granite so I chose Sherwin Williams Brainstorm Bronze.  We kept the existing cabinets and just replaced the doors with a shaker style and added millwork to the soffit to give the illusion of cabinetry to the ceiling–this dramatically affected the feel of the room by making the ceilings seem higher.

The 2008 changes were an improvement to the previous kitchen arrangement, but after a few years the wall of upper cabinets and the mullioned-kitchen window were making me feel closed in.  And I loathed that pink tumbled marble.  We did our best to keep as much as we could to minimize costs but do enough to make a big difference.

We removed all the upper cabinets and soffit that spanned the sink wall and installed a new kitchen window.  It was amazing what this did to open up the space–so happy!

I had planned to put basic white subway tile on the wall for a classic and affordable solution, but when I asked for designer Sherry Hart’s opinion, she suggested this gorgeous 6 x 12″ white marble.  She pointed out how well it went with the granite–coordinating with the grays and the browns speckled in the countertop–and, most importantly, it modernized the kitchen and distracted from the ho-hum granite.  The marble cost twice as much as the originally-planned subway tile, but it was so worth it–Sherry said it would be, and she was right!  I love it, the scale and the subtle veining.  The marble elevates the kitchen in a way the white ceramic wouldn’t have.

I was so thankful that I could confer with Sherry about these changes.  Having another person with a trained eye and immersed in the business to weigh in on the options is so valuable, and I would encourage anyone to hire an interior designer–even if it is just for consultations.   Mistakes can be avoided, beautiful discoveries and options revealed.

I’m still surprised that I went with a navy for the cabinets.  I had narrowed down my choices to gray or navy but knew deep-down I’d play it safe and go with the gray.  But then as I wondered if I could pick a gray to blend with our mismatched stainless appliances, this now-famous kitchen was published in Canadian House & Home.

I think officially those cabinets are black, but they look navy and I was sold.

The brass handles were a surprising Home Depot find!

Chris, the contractor, custom made the red oak shelving where closed upper cabinets used to be.  I’m an open-shelf convert.

The table has been with us for 12 years now–originally all-over pine and then a brief stint in orange.  I stripped the orange and used some leftover gray paint for the table base.

Chris also made the bench for us–great for kids.  On the matter of new chairs, my first gut feeling was to do the Panton chair.  But, of course, I had to look at a million and one different chairs to finally realize that indeed I wanted the classic chair.  They are surprisingly comfy.  And Ol’ Big Red, the chandelier that I bought from Ally, makes me so happy.

So there you go, finally, yellowed and unstyled photos of our kitchen refresh!

Here are the deets:

Paint | Benjamin Moore Polo Blue

Handles | Artesia Liberty at Home Depot

Pendants | Sfera 8 from Rejuvenation Lighting

Chairs | Vitra Verner Panton at All Modern or the knock-off

Tablecloth | Handmade for MyColor Paint Party

Rug | eSaleRugs

Artwork | Yours truly (my daughter did the orange still life)

Cat | Heaven sent

Please don’t hate me because I don’t have the marble tile info…I will update here if I can dig it up.

I’m feeling a little less weird about putting these hands in a medical office after seeing…

…these hands in the lavatory at Serpas restaurant in Atlanta.

Now you know what to do with all those glove molds you see everywhere.  And, it has now gotten to the point where people are sending me photos of random body part objects they see because “it reminds me of you.”  I’ve a reputation now.  So, yes, I love these hands beckoning me from the wall.There were more hands sticking up and out at the Phoenix concert we went to last night.  It was très bien.  And, it was my first time at the Tabernacle, which is like It’s a Small World carnival style–not Disney style.  Naturally, I love it.

One last thing before you bound into the weekend of motherly love:  thank you to talented DIY Queen Jenny of Little Green Notebook for posting my DIY chair upholstery this week!  Yep, I am immensely flattered.

A year has passed since I made some changes to the girl’s room.  We kept all her furniture–just painted the bed, added new bedding, and painted the walls.  Okay, and some other stuff, too.  I totally gave in to my alter-grandma-ego with the flowers and girlie trappings for this requested Princess room.  I was going for vintage 1940s Connecticut girl’s room–mirrored closets, floral patterns in barkcloth colors, white eyelet and gold-trimmed wicker–but with this Connecticut girl spending her weekends with her bohemian New York City aunt, cavorting with the avant garde art scene.  So while there are traditional still life paintings hanging on her wall, there is also evidence of a little de Kooning, Pollock, and Gorky.

I mean, tassels and yellow toile?  Just dipping into my 1990s bag of tricks, if you will.

The embroidered pillow is one of two Sudi made from the king-sized linen sheet I bought in Round Top with my initials on it–she used the corner for this pillow.  Did I ever tell you she got 6 pillows out of that sheet?  Truly.  My friend and Round Top shopping buddy Rachael has the other corner pillow.  The rose-printed sheets are vintage, from my grandmother–the same set I had as a girl.  I really wanted white swiss dot for her canopy but had a hard time finding it.

Paintings–hers and mine–wrap the room all the way around.  It’s busy, people.  In retrospect, I would have done her whole room monochromatic and let the art be the color and pattern.  Plus, my girl is a “collector” so all sorts of odds and ends make it to her room for permanent display. There is plenty of visual energy if you know what I mean.

The little bamboo table is from Salvation Army that I painted and paired with two slipcovered stools from Home Goods.

The bamboo mirrors are from Scott Antique Market, painted the same as the table.  The dresser is one I had built for my first baby’s nursery 10 years ago…can’t believe it!

Her rock collection grows every time we visit Fernbank Museum–all three of my kids have to do the rock vending machine.

And no more will I do custom curtains out of IKEA ready-mades.  You can see how badly they stretch out at the floor.  Oh well.

Her art makes me smile and beam with MamaBear pride–I love that she is surrounded by it in her bed or when she is playing dress up or make-believing princesses.  I don’t know how many times I’ve prayed with her in that bed, “Thank you, Lord, for giving me this girl as my daughter.”  Together now:  awww.  (But it’s so true.)

Cinco de Marlowe!

Of all the nicknames we’ve come up with for our sweet orange kitty, I love Cinco de Marlowe the best; and I’ve been waiting for May 5th like it’s Christmas ever since we bestowed that name on this muchacho.  Because it is way more fun to say Cinco de Marlowe on Cinco de Mayo.

Remember when I surprised my husband with an office redo when he was out of town?  I added to existing furniture–including this fine pleather chair.

But it wasn’t long after the redo that I stopped by and saw a black plasticky breakroom chair on the other side of the gray cabinet.

That just wasn’t going to do.

“Do you need extra seating?” I asked.  ”Let me help you because you really shouldn’t take matters into your own hands.”

So I bought this little floral number at a thrift store.

Ever since the ol’ chap visited Great Britain in 2011, he has fancied himself quite the anglophile.  So I felt a little Union Jack was in order.

Now the breakroom chair can stay in the breakroom.

The ol’ bloke and I made it to the Atlanta Symphony Showhouse last weekend.  Uh, 18,000 square feet of beautiful.  And I have to say, my husband really engaged with the house and designers, asking more relevant questions than me.  Toward the end of the tour, he said in one of the bedrooms, “In these showhouses I’m going to start standing in the shower and inviting people in just to see how many people we can fit in.”  Of course.

So next time you are at a showhouse and a cute yet creepy man asks you into the shower, that is my husband.

My daughter is working on a descriptive paragraph of our living room in her writing class.  Part of the assignment is to draw a picture of the space as well.

I assume my daughter is suggesting I add two lamps and a sconce above the fireplace, all duly noted.

This photo reminds me that this time last year I was working on a kitchen remodel and finishing touches for the rest of the house.  And, you know what?  I never did show, all official like, the finished products.  A real tour.  The Big Reveal.  I will try to get my lazy self in gear to shoot some pics.  No promises on the timing, but I’m on it!

Maybe it’s because only 563 electrolysis appointments separate me from headlining the Bearded Lady sideshow, I don’t know, but there is something inexplicable that draws me to artifacts of carnival life.

Certainly it’s the color, the fantasy, the retro kitsch.  My kids weren’t the only ones crushing on this number wheel that we spotted at Scott Antique Market.  I immediately thought of 563 uses for this contraption (although none of which included hair removal); and, so I bought this thing on the sly and had it sitting under the tree last Christmas morning.

Who doesn’t want to spin a number wheel?  You’re the grumpiest person on earth if you don’t.

And then what tempts me on my recent blogger weekend but this red-lettered sign.

Darlene took this photo of Edie taking a photo of me and Shannon while I conferred with Shannon about my need for this sign.  Now, while it does convey something more highbrow than a carnival with the word “museum” on it, the red-serif letters appealed to the carny in me. I mean, I could just see “Angelina, Bearded Lady from Ukraine” written in those scarlet symbols.  Devil-on-my-shoulder Shannon told me I should get it.

So here it rests in my sons’ undecorated room until I can find its forever home.

What kind of freak show buys a 7-foot sign without knowing exactly where to put it?  This freak show, that’s who.

While I joke about being the bearded lady (kinda sorta), I don’t joke about being a freak.  Pretty much as far back as I can remember I’ve never felt like I’ve fit in anywhere.  And for the most part (kinda sorta), I’ve been okay with that.  Okay, not pleased as punch.  So there is more I have in common with carnies than loving funnel cake and making out on the top of the ferris wheel, I’m different.  But just enough different to confuse everyone.  Is she or isn’t she?

Bloggers apparently like taking photos of bloggers taking photos.  L-to-R, Darlene, Sheila, and Myquillyn

Recently I Myers-Briggsed myself–can you guess?  I’m ISFP–Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, Perceiving.  When I read this ISFP description, my eyeballs nearly fell outta my head.  It was like specifically talking about me.  Any mysteries shrouding me?  Read it to be enlightened about Angelina, Bearded Lady from Ukraine.

So when my friends put up incredibly sweet posts last week about their experience at the cottage, I posted a silly Guess-A-Blogger game.  Ever use humor to mask vulnerability?  Uh-huh, me, too.  Or I clam up.

Anyway, this girl needed a good solid week to process all the awesomeness that went down that weekend.  I felt comfortable and safe to be authentic and to risk being weird or say the wrong thing.  However, I couldn’t write about it last week because I was too emotional and probably would have said that I would move next door to these girls to be their best friend for-freaking-ever, but then that would be weird and definitely the wrong thing to say (but it’s true).

So while I probably will continue to feel freakish, these ladies made me feel like maybe I’m not as hairy as this marquee makes me out to be (I know, I’ll stop with the excess hair references) and that different is as good as I thought it was…just sometimes, you know, I question it.

And I’m not suggesting that these ladies aren’t different, too.  They are.  Different in the most delicious-as-funnel-cake way, and that is precisely why I adore each beautiful one of them.

I know, I know, I know…I can’t take it!  The laptops and bloggers of Nesting Place, Fieldstone Hill, and Life in Grace–the triumvirate–are sitting at my table on a Saturday night.  I hope we can do it again soon!

For more photos:  Darlene, Edie, Myquillyn, and Shannon.

I didn’t lift a one from my weekend reading stack, even with good intentions.

But I did take in some tulips.  Just a few.

I refereed some rough-n-tumble boys.

I breathed it in and whispered thank you.

I contemplated a brother swap for the mischievous little one.  He’d fit right in.

I made a note-to-self:  get some sheep, STAT.

But I positively, absolutely didn’t do any reading.

(I adore the Biltmore Estate in spring.)

A tough gang of colorful-bag-toting chicas took to the streets of Asheville this last weekend…can you Guess-A-Blogger?

1.  This is a trick question.  She’s not a blogger…but this sweet tall brunette may be my long-lost sister.

2.  She gives a mean make-up tutorial.

3.  She’s a magician who turns spoons into flowers!

4. She doesn’t leave home without C.S. Lewis.

5. Even though she’s famous and just wrote a book, she’ll take a turn sleeping on the sofa.

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Did you get them right without looking?  Please let me encourage you to waste not another minute and to get together with your friends for some girl time.  I can tell you these five ladies are tops and blessed me huge with their company in the mountains this weekend.

More photos of the weekend are here at #4 and here at #3…plus they sum up beautifully the fellowship of the weekend.  They are much more eloquent than a Guess-A-Blogger game.  And, the cottage gets dittoed!

I love a reason to set a table for fake guests.  The kids came home for lunch after tennis with their daddy, and I said, “Don’t touch anything–this isn’t for you!” as their hopes for a festive lunch deflated.  We ate lunch outside on paper plates.

My fake dinner party is for a MyColor Paint Party.  I am one of five bloggers this week giving you the skinny on MyColor Inspired by Pantone paints.  Mycolor gave me my choice of three colors.  I chose Cloudburst, Classic Blue, and Blithe for my placemat project.

Lately I’ve found myself obsessed with lovely table settings for our everyday living.  I’ve given my daughter a cabinet full of tablecloths, trays, candles, and napkins to mix it up for dinner every night–it’s on her chore list, in fact.  She has full creative reign at dinner; and so, needless to say, there have been some really interesting combos.

Anyway, I thought we would add some placemats to her cabinet of props.

The 12 x 16 canvas boards are the perfect placemat dimension.

First I painted the canvases Classic Blue.  Then I wanted to do some triangles and planned on making a stencil…but that would have required mathuhmatiks.

I try to avoid math when I can so I was happy when a little lightbulb went off.  Uh, hey, what about those little triangle makeup sponge-thingies in your junky bathroom drawer?  Lloyd, don’t let anyone tell you that bowl cut makes you look stupid–you’re brilliant.

Those little sponges make the perfect imperfect stamped triangles.  I worked on two boards at a time, stamping Blithe and Cloudburst in no real pattern.  I left some spaces blank, just because.

After I had all six painted, I put a coat of Polycrylic on top for shine, protection, and cleaning ease.

With the deep sea color, the chevron, and the Greek key, I can’t help but think of ancient Minoan art.  You, too, huh?

A glamour shot of the vintage glasses…

…and you can see how the Polycrylic gives a nice shine on the placemats.

So don’t think that because I blow off math that I’m not an overachiever.  I totally am.  After the placemats, I decided to make a tablecloth with the leftover dropcloth from the parson chair makeover earlier this year.

I like the dimension the existing white and blue drips give to the MyColor loops and twists.  The canvas is raw so the paint absorbs fast and doesn’t spread well.  But I like the imperfect edges of the loops.  Just turn on some tunes and loop, loop, loop.

All done…and I do like a tablecloth that bisects a table and leaves the ends bare.

I set this table with Talavera plates that I found at the most amazing pottery warehouse in Cuernavaca, Mexico, when I was studying there, ahem, 17 years ago.  I was a month from my wedding, and these plates were better than anything I found to register for back home.  So I bought them on my mom’s credit, had them shipped from Mexico, and promised to pay her back.  She surprised me at my wedding shower with one of these plates wrapped up and my debt forgiven.

Seventeen years later, I love them still.

One more story, promise.  See that little yellow pitcher?  I’ve had it 18 years, a Christmas gift from my boyfriend.  We had been to Galveston, Texas, where I dragged him to a charming little French store near the Strand.  I fell in love with every-expensive-thing in the store but really adored this little yellow pitcher bedecked with red buds.  Months later, I opened it at Christmas from a very thoughtful young man.  Is it any wonder that I married him 7 months later?  And he has proven to be a thoughtful giver ever since.

Oh, no, we’re not done.  Just one more.

I poured Classic Blue into a bucket to try dipping some terracotta pots I had lying around.

The paint went on nice and thick. After the pots dried, I popped some marigolds and petunias in ‘em for instant spring cheer and stuff. 

Can you tell that the pot in back isn’t dipped?  Well, turns out my bucket wasn’t wide enough to dip that pot.  Way to check the diameter beforehand, Lloyd!  So I fudged the dip by painting the blue on with a brush.  Fudging here is okay, but dipping yields better results.

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For more MyColor ideas and inspiration this week, visit these skilled bloggers who also are posting for the paint party:

Nicole from SKETCH 42

Courtney from COURTNEY OUT LOUD

Joi from NUESTRA VIDA DULCE

Claire from HIGH GLOSS BLUE

 

Oh, and turns out we did have a dinner party.

Thank you to MyColor Inspired by Pantone for letting me experiment with their great product and their talented spokesperson Kristen F. Davis for inviting me to participate in the party. You could win a sample of MyColor Inspired by Pantone by commenting here about how you’d use MyColor paint in your next project. For a second chance to win, tweet your project ideas to @MYCOLORPAINTS using hashtag #PassItOn.  And, if you “like” the MYCOLOR INSPIRED BY PANTONE FACEBOOK page, you can share your project ideas there for one more chance to win.  MyColor is also on Instagram @mycolorpaints.