C'mon Baby Light My Fire

"fire" appears to be the theme of my weekend.

This is in part due to my obsession with our fireplace.

We've been waiting since July to get our flat screen recessed.

The waiting game is the absolute pits.

My apologies for the not so pretty word.

Not only are we waiting for the tv to be recessed and

additional molding to be added, we are "throwing" around the idea

of changing the fireplace color from a creamy white to a grayish/green.

My obsession goes further.  Check out the tile we're currently working with.

Do you love it as much as I do? Hee!

An easy enough project for us to tackle?  I think so!

I scanned the web for some inspiration.

Love the subway pattern!

Smaller sized tiles are equally beautiful!

I'm leaning towards travertine subways in hopes that they will compliment

the existing surrounding stone.

Decisions, decisions!

thoughts, anyone?

Creamy white vs. grayish/green???

Another headache : /

We're currently digging this shade.

{Sherwin Williams Intellectual Gray}

Ring the bell!

I'm pretty thrilled with our antique school wall-mounted fire bell!

Even better, this bell lived out it's early life in the

elementary school I attended.

My dad was able to get his hands on it and pass it on to us.

We welcome the bell into the cottage!

Very happily, I might add.

Nighty, night!

*photos courtesy of inspiredmodeling, themarionhousebook, travertine-mosaic-tile.com, marketplace.hgtv.com

The Paint Parade

Deep breaths are in order.

PAINT

Mission accomplished. 

Besides the staircase and a few minor touch ups, we're good to go!

Without all the things that make room a room,

it's difficult to get a true picture of how the room will evolve.

Trust me, I've second guessed some of my color choices. 

I caution other paint fanatics to avoid panicking their choice

 before furniture and accessories are in the room.

{kitchen}

I should have waited until the morning to snap pictures as the rooms are reading a bit dark this late afternoon.  I couldn't help myself since I've been promising to add photos to the blog for sometime now.

{laundry room}

 

{entry}

{dining room}

{family room}

{sun room}

{guest bedroom}

I consider this a darker color. Darker colors can be scary. 

We took a leap of faith with the swatch alone and we ended up being very satisfied!

{upstairs full bath}

{office}

In order for the paint color to be photographed well,

I had to awkwardly angle the camera.

Hopefully you can see the properties of the color.  A gray with a blue undertone.

{chalkboard wall in the office}

{guest bedroom #2}

{master bathroom}

I forgot to snap a of picture of the master bedroom.  I'm on it!

{downstairs half bath}

{basement}

Scariest project to date!  White shelves are still drying.

My head continues to spin and I can't help but fixate on the color wheel.

Rob reminds me that it's no longer necessary.

I reply...

There's always the exterior.

*photo courtesy of pinterest

Once in a Blue Moon

If you had to guess how often you paint a room, what would your answer be?  I'm going to take a guess.  Once in a blue moon?  For many home owners and renters (whose landlords allow painting!) a room is painted and often left that way for quite some time.  The paintaholic in me does prefer changing it up.  However, Rob and I try our best to choose paint colors that we'd truly miss if we decided to paint over them.  Thus, choosing the right color is crucial.  Said it before and I'll say it again.  I apologize if it's repetitious.

Since our last post on paint and color swatches, a lot has changed at the cottage.  I am a firm believer that is often takes one full coat rolled onto the walls to get the true picture of how the color will appear in your space.  I'd love to gloat and proclaim that those itty bitty swatches and my color stories always work out flawlessly.  A color in one house or in one room may not translate in another.  For that reason, I often take precaution when viewing colors over the web.  Don't say I didn't warn you.   Okay, sorry, back to why things have changed at the cottage.  Just call me out when I decide to go on a tangent about color.  Can you tell I'm passionate?  ;)

While we weren't entirely decided on what hue each room would don, we did have a pretty good clue.  Boy have things changed.  As of yesterday, I was begininning to see too much beige. Eck.  While our favorite go to colors tend to be in the white and cream family, we do want some cheeriness and pop at the cottage and above all see the white dove trim really get the praise it deserves.  I began looking to blue for some answers.  We'd like to see our ceiling in the sunroom and walls in the mudroom get the same muted shade of blue.  It appears that blue is the theme for the day...blue moon...blue walls...boy do I got the blues!

{the sunroom}

{cedar shakes on walls and beadboared ceiling}

{ceiling take two}

{sunroom from the exterior}

{mudroom}

A true blue gal, deserves some true blue walls.  Let me show you some of the blues that have been up for discussion at the cottage.  

 {benjamin moore glass slipper}

{bm glass slipper room shot}

{benjamin moore wythe blue}

{stunning kitchen in bm wythe blue}

 

{benjamin moore palladian blue} 

{bm palladian blue room shot}

{sherwin williams rainwashed}

{sw rainwashed room shot}

Do you have the blues like I do?

We're diggin' our kitchen colors!

So far, so good.

*photos courtesy of house beautiful, jo rabuat, house of turquoise blog, decorpad

Confessions of a Paintaholic

Come on in...if you dare!



I apologize if I scared you.  But I have to warn you.  Painting and the process of choosing the right color can be entirely overwhelming.  Even before the keys to the cottage were in my hand, I began developing a color story for the house.  Choosing colors that flow from one room the next is crucial.  Well, to me anyways.  Any paintaholic like me can attest that picking the right colors can take over your life.  I was doing less cuddling and more fan deck looking...less socializing and more color sampling.  Color swatches couldn't escape my mind as I'd lie awake.  Months in and I'm still undecided about how each room will evolve.  Only time will tell. 

Here's what we're working with.  Have your walls ever resembled a multi-colored cheetah like ours do?  It's the new look.  Oh, you didn't know that? ;)

{Kitchen in all it's glory}

Is it strange that drop clothes excite me?  Even though drop clothes can be an eye sore, I tend to look at them as progress.  Here at the cottage, we are all about progress.

The trim, ceiling and doors are beginning to look alive. 

{Dining Room}

Nothing a coat of Benjamin Moore's White Dove can't fix.  It's a lovely shade of white with a hint of grey.  A wonderful go to color for those who don't want that stark look.

{good ol' color deck}

how I love thee...

NOT

I recommend picking up the individual color swatches at your local home improvement store.  We like setting them out to get an idea of how the colors jive with one another.

Here are a few of my favorite color swatches that we will be working from.

Did I overwhelm you?  Yeah, me too.

Hopefully by Monday I'll have some finished walls to show you!

 

On a side note, Rob and I picked up some red ticking stripe fabric for the chairs I featured on yesterday's entry.  I liked the way the fabric played off of the modern lines of the chair (even though it's an old chair).

{we love us some ticking stripe fabric}

I'm off to return to the chaos of the cottage.

Ciao for now!