New Paint Reveal - Finally

We had the house painted over the summer and I have spent a lot of time rethinking a lot of things in my house since then. Everything is painted Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter, perhaps the most overused color in the blogosphere but it's a fabulously versatile color. Here's the long overdue reveal. Apologies for the sometimes not so great pictures - these were taken on a gloomy, rainy Sunday. Also, I cleaned up the major clutter but the toys and kitchen stuff is the stuff that is always on my counters and I chose to leave thing as they are so you can see how we really live (sort of - it's usually way messier!!).

Pot of chili bubbling on the stove on a rainy, cool fall Sunday afternoon - nothing better.

And our family room which is the hardest room to photograph in the house. So many windows and views into other spaces. I never put the curtains back up and I still love the open feeling, especially on the back doors.

Here's the living room. The color really works well with the wheat colored furniture and brass accents. I would love to replace the coffee table but haven't found the right thing. I may change out the art over the fireplace with another piece that I already have.

Perhaps my favorite shot of this reveal is this one of our front door. The new paint color really sets off the painted front door. I loved it before but now I love it even more. This is also a very accurate depiction of how the color looks in person, in case you are considering it for your own space.

"We can either paint or move. You pick."

I uttered those words to Handy Hubby a few months ago. He quickly said that painting was a good idea. Of course he hates moving and I know that so it was a slam dunk (and, no, I really don't have any desire to move). I love yellow but I was just tired of being hemmed in by a somewhat specific color (although if you like warm colors then it's a great, versatile option). I felt it wasn't working with the direction my decor was going, and I was feeling bored.

I sampled a ton of paint thanks to the generosity of friends and clients with lots of gray and taupe paint samples. I finally decided on Revere Pewter. Actually, it was an easy choice. As soon as I put the sample on the wall I liked it so it quickly became a contender. I also liked Sherwin Williams Alpaca and a few others but Revere Pewter had the right mix of gray and tan, and it also worked really well with blue.

I also felt like it was a color and not just a variation on white which was my goal. Although I do like white... maybe my next paint job.

And here's how it looks today.

It has been 2 weeks since it was finished and I love how it came out. I am so glad we made this change. It has also been a great opportunity to rethink my art choices and various accessories. Any time you take everything out of a space, it's an opportunity to think again about how you want your rooms to feel. This time my dad put the blinds back up but I decided to leave the curtains off for a while and see how I feel about it. The curtains were weighing the room down and who needs a heavy-feeling room in the summer? 

Of course, this has led to several more projects. More to come!

Drawer Organizers

Happy New Year!!  In the spirit of the new year, I have some quick organizational and decorating projects to share in the next few weeks.  Hope you had a great holiday!

We have one drawer in our island where we store nearly all of our kitchen prep and cooking utensils.  We have a few more spoons and spatulas in a handy container near the stove as well but we use the drawer stuff all the time.  So it looked like this 95% of the time.

This is WITH drawer organizers - but they are buried underneath. I was starting to worry about my fingers when I reached in without concentrating!! So, drawer organizers were definitely necessary. The knife block was still great and I wanted to keep that but everything else had to go. I also cleaned out some duplicate, broken and rarely used utensils. Then Handy Hubby started using some thin strips of scrap wood to create new dividers. I started by laying the tools in categories so I would know where they should be housed together and by how often I used them - measuring cups near the front, rolling pin in the back, and kitchen scissors from and center.  He also cut down the knife block so it fit the depth better. Then we started to mess with the layout a bit.

And then a few hours later we had this! Only a few pieces are actually attached to anything so we can change it easily if we want to but I really love it.

We did this back in September and it still looks pretty much the same as the day we installed it.

Woohoo!

Cabinet Air Returns Revised {Kitchen}

At some point these air returns under our cabinets were really bothering me.  They looked like little black holes under the cabinets and I hated them.

I have no idea why these were brown but they were definitely not a top priority punch list item when we moved into our house post-renovation with a 3 year old and 2 month old!  Although replacing them with white was probably the best option, I decided to go with the quick option and use up a can of white spray paint I had hanging around in the basement.

So much better and blendy.  [I know that's not a word but I think it should be.]

Happy, happy.

Chandelier Takes One for the Team {Kitchen}

At one point I loved our kitchen chandelier.  It was one of my favorite deals that I found for our "new" house.  As my style has evolved a bit over the last few years I started finding a lot of replacement contenders.

I was coveting a wood and iron chandelier (similar to this) from the Lucketts Design House for months.  Then ultimately decided that I did not really want to spend $500 for something that I might want to change again in 5 years.  #Iknowmyself

So I decided to remove the shades from my chandelier and see if that helped.  The bell shaped shades are being evicted from all over my house.

I lived with it like that for a few weeks.  Still...no. I ultimately decided that it was just too busy with the ornate painting.  This is a problem I am finding throughout my house. Trying to de-clutter and de-decorate in a lot of areas.  So hard. #Ilikestuff

So out came the chalk paint. Again, no sanding or prep.  Just started laying it on there with 2 coats.  The kids were a bit surprised because although they had seen me attack furniture, never a light fixture.  I let it dry for a day and then experimented with a light coat of dark wax I had picked up on my second trip to Lucketts.  It gave it the right amount of dirt age.  Here's the final result.  

Happy to say that I love it and it really didn't cost me anything since I already had the paint as evidenced here.  I like that the color is carrying through to multiple rooms.

The dining room could really use a dose of this… Handy Hubby is going to be so mad. Do you spy any other changes in my family room?

Centralized Charging Station {Kitchen}

Please tell me that I'm not the only one with this going on in their kitchen or some other central place in your house....

Phones, chargers, pens, radios, papers, etc.  Drives me crazy.  

I started looking at charging stations such as this, but nothing was really working for me.  So I sketched up a quick plan and Handy Hubby took on the task...

And now we have this...

It holds our phone chargers, pens and pencils, our Tivoli radio, and even some paper under the hinged top where the radio sits.  Everything plugs into a power strip which is inside at the bottom. I chose to paint it the same color as our trim (Sherwin Williams Toque White)

It's about a million times better than where we came from...

Of course Handy Hubby and I are considering how we would improve this for version 2.0.  Maybe a place for paper, an iPad, and possibly a variation on the phone holder.  We'll keep you posted!

Kitchen: Color Pop Runner

I love my black and white kitchen.  It's so clean and classic and I hope it won't ever really go out of style. I've made conscious decisions to not do anything too trendy or out of sync with the style of our colonial home.  For example, after a lot of pondering we chose a white subway tile backsplash with light gray grout (more on that here).

At the same, time the black and white is really just a blank slate for any other color that strikes my fancy.  I'm in a blue and green kick which is carrying through the family room, living room, and the kitchen.  Other than my countertop compost container and some dishtowels, I had not found many good ways to bring these colors in without making major modifications.  At various points, I had thought about adding a carpet runner through the main walking area in the kitchen.  Although I had originally envisioned a black and white patterned runner, I came around to adding some bold graphic color in a graphic pattern here.

The rug came up on a daily deal sale on One Kings Lane for $49 (it's called Kau Outdoor Runner in green).  My mom happened to be here when I found it there and she agreed it would be a good choice.  It's an outdoor rug which means I can take it outside and hose it in the driveway when the need presents itself.  

So far, I love it.  It needs a non-slip pad under it but other than that, I don't have any complaints.  The added bonus is that it will help protect the hardwood.  Hardwood in the kitchen can be tough (especially hardwood finished on site).  Although I've chosen to be happy with a more rustic, naturally aged over time look, I want to give our floors every chance they can get!  It nicely covers the area in front of the sink where I previously had a 2x3 black and white rug.  

The nice part is that if I want something with different colors or tones in other seasons, it's a 1 minute costume change!  What do you think?  Did I make the right choice?  How have you added pops of color to your kitchen?