Color and shape
Posted by Lanea on Thursday, May 15th, 2008
The guys laid the last of the floor yesterday afternoon and are taking a break from us to go work on some strangers’ floor for a little while. In the interim, we’re going to try to get some more painting done and to get things back in order. I’m also going to try to get rid of at least half of our property.
So, here is proof of our toil, and our willingness to paint with real, saturated color. The library is a lovely, deep orange. The curtains aren’t going in until I paint the windows and closet doors, but they’re the same deep blue linen drapes we’ve had for a long time, and I think they’ll look wonderful against those saturated walls.
I took some measurements, and we’re still short of shelf space. I’ve managed to winnow out six books. It nearly made me have a panic attack. I’ll try again in a few days. We are making space in the shelves in the living room by finally letting go of our CD cases, but we’ll still be short of shelving space in all of the rooms. How do people handle this? Random book collection decimation?
Next, I give you the completed bath, and the tile I love like no other.
The white tub, tile, and trim make me very very happy, as does the double shower rod–I use this bathroom most of the time and it’s also our guest bath, and there were never enough places to hang towels before. On the right, you can see the great stain match Mike got between the bamboo floors and the new pine closet doors. The hallway wall isn’t showing its true color there–the green is a bit richer and deeper, but not dark. It will also be going on most of the living room walls.
This doesn’t really show the wall color accurately either, but it does demonstrate how well we matched the woods to the dog. Kayo is glad that the nail gun has left the building. He is opposed to nailing, and nails, and people who are doing things other than playing with him. And he thinks cameras are stupid as soon as he remembers they don’t dispense treats.
Now look at the stairs with the floor. Just look at that! How did he do that? He matched 40 year old oak stair treads to brand new bamboo. How? The mind boggles (ignore the ugliness of the risers–they’ll turn pretty soon).
The rooms upstairs are further from completion. Everything from both rooms is stuffed into one side of the bedroom. We still need to pick a paint color for the bedroom and the stairwell. I want it all to be blue. I also might want my studio to be blue, at least in part.
Have I mentioned I’m almost as bad about blue as I am about green? I realized a couple of days ago that I have apparently been plotting this whole color scheme of this remodel around my own and Scott’s coloring, what with the blue-eye blues and green-eye green and the dark brown and the deep orange (I have freckles and an orangey-brown nevis in one eye–not jaundice). That may be the most narcissistic thing I have ever done, but at least it started out as an accident. I’m going to try not to focus on that though, and just work on convincing Scott that blue and green paints are good paints. Because, really, what other colors do people paint things? I already used orange and yellow, and a deep red stairwell is not going to feel safe to me.
I clearly need a nap. I’m heading to our annual women’s beach trip this weekend. Maybe one of my artsy pals can snap me out of the blue and green thing before I buy more paint.
Filed in blather | 12 responses so far
megon 15 May 2008 at 7:58 pm 1It happens. We accidentally painted most of our house green before we noticed what we were doing. By then, too late.
Donna in VAon 16 May 2008 at 8:02 am 2Stick with the blue — that’s what happened in our house. I think it happened because we found each newly painted room to be so soothing and peaceful that blues just grabbed us at the paint chip wall. We do have raspberry& pink in the dining room and yellow and blue in the kitchen but blue has taken over elsewhere and threatens to take over more rooms.
kon 16 May 2008 at 5:54 pm 3Indigo and violet. Ooooh, violet.
But since I don’t live there, how about some blues, or greens, or maybe blue greens? Nah, violet.
They’re beautiful rich colors. The tile is fantastic! Maybe someday I’ll have a place I can paint.
Minhon 17 May 2008 at 10:08 am 4If you’re running out of space for your books, I have friends who use each shelf twice. They put the tall books in the back and then another row of short books in the front. Your shelves look deep enough to do that 🙂
Bettyon 20 May 2008 at 10:58 am 5Re books. I have thousands of books shelved by category and am out of shelf space (again). I’m currently trying to purge books that I am confident would be available in the public library if I really wanted them. I found that sometimes I want to recommend or reread a book but can’t remember the author or title, but I can search my bookcases and find it. So I am also creating a book diary to record the books I read to help me let go of ownership of the actual text. Oh, perhaps I should mention that I’m getting another bookcase built in under the window seat, which is to say that I understand your dilemma.
Jenniferon 20 May 2008 at 12:12 pm 6It all looks fabulous!!
Hey, I lost your email address and need to send you some info on that project I asked you to help with a couple of months ago … would you email me at yarnpainter@gmail.com and send it to me? Thankee 😀
Hugs, Jen
fiberliciouson 22 May 2008 at 12:12 am 7Those floors look absolutely luscious!
Nice all ’round.
Melissaon 01 Jun 2008 at 4:19 pm 8I absolutely love all your colors!! The floors look fabulous. The bathroom looks so inviting. Looks great!!! I’m jealous 🙂
bibliotecariaon 05 Jun 2008 at 1:26 pm 9Blue and green are excellent colors.
But if you feel a need for something new, try yellow.
Bullwinkleon 10 Jun 2008 at 4:52 am 10Blue and green ARE excellent colors (to quote Melissa, above). Paint whatever color you like. What is wrong with an entire house of blue and green?
Love the floors. And the ears on that dog 🙂
Bullwinkleon 10 Jun 2008 at 5:07 am 11Oh, the book thing (because typing the words “book culling” might be too traumatic at any hour of the day):
Before I moved into a smaller place, I looked at each book as said: do I LOVE it? Will I reread it? Refer back to it? Is there a reason to keep it? This is how I got rid of most of the fiction and non-fiction. (1000+ books were set free.) I went to the library, a lot, to remind myself of the selection that they kept on hand, just for me.
I decided that cookbooks had to have at least some number of recipes that I actually used. (One was not a good number.) Then I moved the cookbooks to the kitchen/dining area and out of the book storage. That freed up a lot of space on the shelves.
I kept some reference books on various topics – I moved a few years ago and I checked the internet for references. If the topic could be dated, I gave the book away. (i.e. herbal info is available on the web; dog training is not.)
I mailed a few favorites to people who would love them (and keep them). There used to be a “book in the wild” movement – leave a favorite book on a train, or airport, or hostel for someone to find. (Leave a note in it!) I took piles of books to remote locations and left them there. (I always check the books at these places and I always find something to read.)
I haven’t missed any books (except a few fiction books that I wish I had to give to someone new in my life. I bought new/used ones.)
Good luck. Free some space in your life for something new!
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