Welcome Home

On Friday, my parents, their two Yorkies, and I left for a trip in the RV. As my parents sat in the parking lot of my apartment complex waiting for me, a stray neighbor walked up to my non-smoker of a dad and tried bumming cigarettes off of him. Last night, my parents and I returned from our trip. Mom hadn't seen the new house (in real life) yet, so they stopped by there before swinging by the apartment where all of our stuff resides until the new house gets cleaned (ducts, carpets, chimney, and general cleaning done by someone other than me because I'm not cleaning someone else's filth). While we stood outside, one of my neighbors (who happens to be an original owner of his house built in the early 70s!) came by to introduce himself and tell me that Sundays, we put out "recycles" and Tuesdays, we put out trash. I do believe we will enjoy this change in scenery and people.

I stood in every room and tried to conjure up a vision for each one. The kitchen, my friends, perplexed me. The counters are a dark green with flecks of black and bits of white. The cabinets are some tan/brown/cognac color. And the walls are a terrible manila. The only manila I like comes in folder form. Anyway, the four of us stood there contemplating what color to paint the walls of this kitchen. We decided most colors that look good with dark green--navy, maroon, coral, yellow--would not be suitable for walls of a kitchen. When we returned to the apartment, I consulted my Pinterest clothing boards. I thought, "I wear a bunch of hunter green. What colors usually complement it?" I settled on gray. To test out my theory, I wore an outfit today comprised of hunter green, gray, black, and white (the color we think we'll paint the cabinets). It sold me on the color scheme. Is this method crazy or brilliant? I cannot determine which.

Let's begin with the outfit:

The Look:

Top: LOFT Outlet (got it this weekend during our trip)

Pants: Exact Stretch pants from The Limited (best pants ever)

Heels: J.Crew Factory (most comfortable heels ever)

The kitchen is...enormous. The previous owners converted the garage space into kitchen space, leaving us with a gargantuan kitchen.

(Ugh. The wall color disgusts me.)

This is the view of the kitchen from the breakfast nook area.

We think the cabinets will really pop if we paint them white (not sure what shade yet) with black pulls on them. 

Yes, there's a full desk in the kitchen/breakfast nook area. I don't understand it either, but I'll use it as office space until we determine what exactly we want to do with the main level.  (It's attached to the wall and floor, so it won't be an easy removal.)

The ceilings are vaulted.

There's even a mural of pastoral Ireland. How quaint. 

It won't be staying. Sorry, Ireland lovers.

This is the dining/living(?) area. The windows overlook the backyard.

Big, pretty windows. I am at a loss for decorating this area. Reading area? Sitting area? Office-like area? What goes here?!

This ENTIRE master bedroom is blue. The baseboards, the closet doors, the INSIDES of the closets, and even the ceiling. I imagine someone spun a Smurf in a million circles, smacked it on the back, and watched it puke all over the place. The bedroom is enormous. I couldn't figure out how to photograph it. 

Master bath has a window above the sink, not a mirror. Don't worry. I've got some ideas. 

So, the floor is tan/white, the shower is gray/white, and the countertop is black/white/tan. I do not understand the colors, but I don't plan to re-tile everything, so we have to get creative about how we make it all work together. We'll paint the cabinet white to pull in the color of the beadboard on the wall/white flecks in the counter/white in the gray and tan tiles. The beadboard as well as the rope-like tile between the beadboard/tiling gives the bathroom a bit of a nautical feel, so we're going to pull that theme together in the master bath and master bedroom. It's all about working with what we've got and just creating cohesiveness as best we can. 

This is one of the other two bathrooms. This whole thing will need to be redone. Clearly, it's original to the house. Or, they went as hog wild with the blue in here as they did in the master bedroom. I love blue, but even I have my limitations. 

I couldn't take any other pictures because it was dark, and we don't have lights in every room. I did the best I could.