Monday, September 29, 2014

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. 




11 comments:

  1. Yay for your new home! It looks like these is a lot of great space and a lot of possibilities too. Can't wait to see how you work your magic :)

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  2. Moving into a new home is so exciting! I know it's probably overwhelming to think of all the work you'll put into it, but it's all yours and you can do with it as you like!

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  3. Colors are colors, they go together regardless of the surface (clothes, cabinets, whateves). Or so I'd like to think. Anyway, your house is awesome. I'm so jealous of all the space!!

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  4. Oh man, your house looks awesome! I think the gray and white plan for the kitchen is perfect. And I can't even believe how EVERYTHING is blue in the bedroom. Why was it necessary to paint the insides of doors?? It really amazes me what some people think is a good idea.

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  5. Congrats on your beautiful, new home. It looks quite spacious. I love the kitchen, so big. That mural is nice but I'd probably get rid of it also. Last, I adore that map shower curtain.

    And your hair looks so cute in the 40's inspired curls.


    Pleasure catching up with you Danielle. It seems like you had had some exciting and busy last couple of months. =)

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  6. I say yes to the gray walls and white cabinets! I could seriously paint every room in my house a different shade of gray ad be happy. Gray just looks greay with everything. As for the room with all windows, I think you should use it as your dining room! Our dining room in the house I grew up in was full of windows just like yours, and I always loved opening the blinds for the natural light to come in. I've gotta know your ideas for your bathroom.. I'm so confused as to why someone would put a window above the sink and not a mirror! Where will you brush your teeth? Or will you brush without looking?

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  7. I think the hunter green kitchen with cabinets, even if you didn't paint them, kind of work like neutrals, so I think you could paint the walls just about any color you want (except maybe red, unless you really, really love Christmas). And the bathroom, I bet if you put up a fabric shower curtain so you can't really see the tiles in there, you can probably make those other colors work too. When we lived in Florida, we had this weird bath that was basically three rooms connected by doors, in the following order: from hall, go into "guest" bath area with sinks and toilet; open door to shower/tub; open door to "master" bath area with sink, toilet, door to master bedroom AND door to outside. Where there was no pool. The best part was that the toilet in the "master" bath had a gray bowl, pink tank, and purple top of the tank. I kid you not. Did you know you can totally spray paint your toilet? Yeah. You can. And I did. Then it was just gray and white, which I could live with. You can seriously do amazing things with your new house, just give it time and the ideas will come to you!

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  8. I'm jealous of the size of your kitchen! I think it will look really nice with the white cabinets. That was one of our ideas when we redid our kitchen, but we decided on a cherry color instead. And what the heck is with that Ireland mural? So random!

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  9. I loved seeing your new house! I can't wait to see it all come together. That kitchen is just gorgeous!! You could have a large party in there! The large desk is a bit odd if that's the dining area. It's a pretty nice desk if you decided to keep it. A window instead of a mirror in the bathroom?? What kind of madness is that?

    As for the kitchen color ideas, I think you're brilliant. Testing out color combos by using clothing colors to see how they work together?? I never would have thought of that! I think with all your ideas, your new house is going to look fantastic :)

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  10. I'm kind of in love with your new house, Danielle...that kitchen is fantastic, and I love the idea of painting the cabinets white! I actually really like the built-in desk thingy next to your kitchen :) Kevin and I have a similar room that's all windows, and it's our reading room. We have "the dog couch" and our comfy recliner in there with a couple of lamps and bookshelves, and it's perfect. We spend so much time in there with the dogs!!

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Feel free to throw some witticisms my way.