"On A Sunny Sunday Afternoon...."

 

 

This is what I did on a gorgeous sunny afternoon:

Pruned this hydrangea! It was very overgrown..we inherited it with the house and I don't think it had been touched in at least five years. Poor thing.

 

            So we took it down to this:

 

And made sure to leave all the new buds:

(I know...very out of focus!)

And are hoping it will come back to its gorgeousness of last summer 

(this was taken before we even owned the house)

 

And here WAS the front entryway before we removed the trees: 

 

We've opened it all up and removed most of what was to the left here. Yes, new plants are yet to come, but I like it SO much better open...

 

And then I played around in my new garden, including the pansies I had planted back at Thanksgiving:

 

 

I wanted to put some pansies in here but didn't have the right equipment... so I'll wait for warmer days.

 

 

IT'S PARTY TIME!

Today I'm joining the party over at Room Remix, one of my very favorite blogs! PK does a fabulous job of blogging...about all kinds of details of interiors.

She has been running a series, named "Paint", this week, asking six different designers various questions about their use of paint in interiors. They have been very interesting questions and the answers are great to read for their variety. So, do go and take a look and I know you will learn something! It's been great for me as just this week I've been looking at neutrals for our master bathroom. I have testers on the walls, but nothing seems right. Enter PK with her question: "What are three of your favorite neutrals?". How perfect is that?

I'm waiting for my sample sheets to arrive tomorrow from Ben Moore!

You DO know about these color sheets, don't you? Here's the link. It's a wonderfully efficient way to see a good size color swatch on your wall: you don't have to buy dozens of sample pints and you don't have to prime over your color swatches!

I've done several posts the past few months on our new house and the interior paint challenges I've been dealing with... So I thought I would review those here. Some of you will recognize parts of this, and for others it will all be new.

Here's my beginning color palette

grays and more grays

I never, in a million years, thought I would love gray this much!

And here were some of the names:

•  amulet                                       
•  fog mist
• mysterious
• chestertown buff                      
• moroccan spice
• marblehead gold                        
• edgecomb gray
• iron mountain
• pale avocado
• yellow bisque

The master bedroom in "Marblehead Gold"

My office in Pale Avacado 

and with the Stirling Gray rug:

And now, the famous "Iron Mountain";

We sanded the old wood and it's shiny surface, primed, put two coats of gloss, and then some varnish. Love love!

and the fireplace in same:

Front entry is "Pale Oak", and to the left you can just see "Straw Yellow". They look wonderful together, and as this is basically one large space, work well with the white woodwork.

This is certainly not finished yet, but here's the lav in BM "Mysterious". It's spectacular! I'll do another post on this room next week to show you the details!

And now comes the biggest challenge of all: the kitchen. We have been round and round and round on this one. My latest idea is to paint the ceiling "Jasper Yellow".

On the left is what you see on a monitor, coming from the Ben Moore color swatch. It is not even close. I played around in Photoshop, trying to match my fan deck color, and on the right is about as close as i can come: 

    

You will surely be seeing more of my kitchen and all the ideas I'm playing with.

Fun project; fun party!

Have a nice weekend!

PILLOW LOVE

Let's start with this pillow; found at Home Goods a year ago.

Place it (x3=them) on a cream color sofa. And then...find some pillows to sit with it (them). This one is 24". The back has a woven green texture.

A lumbar pillow from West Elm?

A Jason Pollen also from West Elm?

Or a photo-realistic look from Crate?

Or the classic Marimekko look?

A Marimekko lumbar:

From TurquoiseTumbleweed on Etsy:

or her Suzani pattern lumbar:

Love this from Lynne'sThisandThat on Etsy:

and how about this to sit next to it:

last but not least:

So many, many to choose from. What's your choice? Do you go crazy for pillows? They can make a room come alive...so go for it and have fun with them!

IT'S PANTONE TIME AGAIN

These caught my eye recently:

metal boxes in Pantone colors

11.8" L x 8.7" W x 4.3" H: larger than they appear here. They would even hold 81/2 x 11 papers. Or your collection of tape, stapler, scissors, labels. Or line them with felt, or any fabric, and use to sort jewelry. Put some pretty color tissue paper and fill with cookies as a gift. The possibilities are endless!

And the notebooks:

For U. S. purchase, look here.

Small or large size. Perfect!

So, coming back to the tin boxes, take a look here. WOW!

Sugar cookies made to look like Pantone color chips, inside the Pantone box!!

Just how cool is that? See the entire story here.

This is one of the coolest ideas I've seen in a long.....time! Thank you Kim at Creative Star!

MORE LIGHTING!

I've become sort of obsessed with lighting.

You remember my post of last week about lighting?

I had never really focused on lights or lighting; in our old house they just...existed. No big deal. Nothing very creative going on there! But here, wow! it's fun to see the possibilities.

How about these from...where else...Anthropologie. Cute, cute.....

This shade is extraordinary. and at just $98 it's all possible!

I'm crazy about this one: as I'm also deep into orange accessories!

From a new(to me) source: BoConcepts. More orange.

Another from BoConcept that can be used as either table or wall light:

And back to Anthropologie with a look toward spring!

Somehow it doesn't matter to me what the new trends are in lighting; I'm having fun exploring new sites and seeing the new possibilities!

RED....AND MORE RED

 

Stunning

Stunning

Mrs. Obama in this gorgeous Alexander McQueen dress. This was the State Dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao

 

 

The Red Room at the White House: 

 

Then there's the new spring "Red Collection" from Kate Spade:

 

 Straight from the news desk, here is a video from last night's reception. Go past the political entrances...and watch the red dress.  See how the fabric moves as she walks. So fluid and lovely!

 

What do you think? Is red becoming an important new color?