When Walls DO Talk

When we bought That Old House in the Spring of 2008, 
I had two days to choose the colors for the rooms.

Me and the Benjamin Moore fan decks got quite intimate.

It is so hard to make these decisions in a hurry.

I had a little guidance from some of the rooms themselves;
they had strong opinions about their colors.

Stick with me for this story . . . there is a point, I promise!

I tried hard to get the dining room to agree to be yellow,

even painting big patches of yellow on the walls,

but it insisted that it needed to be red.

And so it was.  And still is.

You shouldn't argue with these things.

The little upstairs guest room was clearly done with lavender,

and it became yellow.  

Because it said so.  It had to be.

And the upstairs hall bath?

As we found it.

It insisted on being Blue.

But not any old blue; it had to be just the right blue.

And I found it in the fan deck for Moore's Historic Colors.

Wythe Blue.

I adore this color.  If I ever need to paint myself, this is the color I'll use.

And so we come to last week, when the bathtub was replaced.

Down came the tub walls,
revealing old, old, old, very old wallpaper.

The wallpaper was blue.

But not any old blue; it was Wythe Blue.

Even my artist daughter Anne said, "That's the same blue!"

It's a little weird, what with all the other kinds of unexplained
things that happen around That Old House, that this room
should so clearly have spoken to me about its color.

As did the dining room, the yellow guest room,
the master bedroom, and the exterior of the house.

We bought an old yellow house
that I always pictured, in my mind's eye, as white.

Yellow house, green shutters.

Two years ago, when painters were scraping it, we discovered
that the bottom coat of paint, the original color, was indeed white.
And now it is again.


Back to its original white, and its original
ultra-dark green shutters and door trim.
Yup, that's green, not black!


I wouldn't call the past colors secrets of an old house,
but I do love getting a peek behind the walls of our old house.

Have a lovely Tuesday.

We are in for wonderful September-like weather this week.

Hooray!  -- Cass

Color Of The Year

Not to be thought old-fashioned and out of date,
That Old House has requested that she be snazzed up
with the 2012 Color Of The Year.


According to Pantone, the self-proclaimed color dictators
the company that makes millions selling, well, colors (how do
they do that?), the 2012 Color Of The Year is Tangerine Tango.

Oh dear.

That Old House is 180 years old.

Orange is harsh on an aging complexion.

Does deep orange belong in an old farmhouse?

I made a quick loop around That Old House, checking

if there are already some trendy Tangerine-colored bits and bobs here and there.  

There's this, on the walnut cupboard in the kitchen:

Also in the kitchen, atop Jabba the Hutch, two pumpkin tureens:

I found a hard, dry navel orange, a refugee from the toe of a Christmas stocking.

I guess I can snazz that up for a little orange zzziiiing.

Orange is not an easy color to live with, in large scale.

Especially when it's not Halloween.

In packets of takeout duck sauce, not so hard:

In its defense, as an accent or in accessories, strong orange is striking.

And not in a "strike me over the head with a baseball bat" kind of way.  Striking in a good way.

For instance, this, from Pantone's very own website:

A bergere chair upholstered in that Tangerine Tango color,

which is a very red orange, against a soft blue wall.

Why, hush my puppies, if that blue wall don't look a whole lot like

the color that is Benjamin Moore's 2012 Color Of The Year.

Wythe Blue.

This, from Benny Moore's website: Wythe Blue walls in a dining room:

As luck would have it, we are already on trend with this trendy color.

It's all over the walls of our second-floor hall bath.

 Wythe Blue is easy on the eyes, easy to live with, and while it's been named

2012 Color of the Year by its maker, it's one of their Historic Colors.  Interesting. 

 I have my plan in place.

I will just tell That Old House that she'll have to be content with

wearing at least one of the 2012 Colors of the Year.

What about you?
Do color trends and fads influence your choices in your home?
Do you have plans to incorporate Tangerine Tango in your decor?

There's no right or wrong answer to that; whatever pleases, works.

Have a marvelous weekend!  I'm hoping we are almost done with rain for a few days.

But right now, I'm going to take care of that rapidly drying orange before it's too late.  -- Cass

LINK PARTIES!

At My Romantic Home, it's Show And Tell Friday.  Click here!

Feathered Nest Friday makes its home at French Country Cottage.  Click here!

The Charm of Home features Home Sweet Home on Fridays.  Click here!

It's Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground.  Click here!

LaurieAnna's Vintage Home is the place for Farmhouse Friday.  Click here!

If It Haint Blue, Don't Paint It

"I want the body & trim white, the shutters
that very dark green that's almost black,
the front door mumble-mumble-mumble,
and the porch ceiling painted in
Benjamin Moore's Morning Sky Blue."

(Now why does this remind me of that famous scene

with Myrna Loy choosing colors in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House?)

And so began the painting of That Old House, 8 days ago. 

Update as of Friday --

Sanding and scraping: done!

Priming: pretty much done.

Painting: first coat of white on about 80% of the house.

Which is all pretty exciting, but what tickled me pink today was something very blue. 

Yesterday, the porch ceiling was primed, and looked like this:

 

Today, it looks like this:

It's blue!

Why blue? 

My mother thought all porch ceilings should be blue because of the legend that blue ceilings

fool bugs into thinking that there is just sky -- air -- above the porch, and they don't nest there.

In the South, there's an old custom of painting porch ceilings haint blue to keep away

haints,

or evil spirits -- haints can't cross water, and apparently aren't the brightest bulbs

in the porch lights if they mistake a blue ceiling for a body of water.  Duh.

Third reason?  That's just my personal one.  Blue is pretty, and calm,

looks like the sky (even if you are not a bug) and helps to make a front porch

the perfect spot to relax and have a morning cup of coffee or an evening apertif.

 It's just one coat so far.  But I love it.

It wasn't until after I'd chosen Morning Sky Blue for the porch ceiling that I realized

we'd used that same color out at the beach house for one of the bedrooms upstairs.

Former sewing room at beach house, now a guest room.  In Morning Sky Blue.

 A good color's a good color, you know?

 As for the color of the front door, I'm going to make you wait for that, for a full reveal.

I hope you like it; I've managed to convert my artist daughter Anne to my side.  Kind of.  Almost.

As for using haint blue paint to keep spirits away from

That Old House, we don't need to do that.

As long as they stop stealing our silverware.

More on that in another post. . . .

Have a wonderful weekend!

You won't believe what our calendar looks like for the next week, as we approach

The Wedding Day on June 25th.  That Old House is going to be crawling with workmen,

and Howard and I have our own projects in the works; check back to see if we get it all done!

   It's a good thing we work best under pressure!  -- Cass

The Beach House Gets Its Colors!

I'm back.
Back from 5 days at our family beach house,
on the eastern end of Long Island, where a most amazing
painting crew covered nearly every square inch of the
house's interior with wonderful summery color.
All paint colors by Benjamin Moore.

Howard and I arrived on Saturday, to very high winds and heavy rain.
I had trouble getting out of my car; the wind kept slamming the door shut on me!

But by the next morning, we had this:

From the upstairs deck.

 Watching professional painters is humbling, as I recall my own Slap-Happy Homeowner painting projects of the past.

The pros do real prep.  They even wrap the furniture and contents in plastic.  And they are so fast!

That's Kevin, the boss man, putting a first coat of Lemon Ice, in the twin bedroom upstairs.

At 7 on Sunday morning, the painters arrived, and by the time they left they had repaired

issues with the walls and ceilings, painted most of the ceilings, and

we had 3 freshly painted bedrooms upstairs, and two power washed decks.

And that was with only 2 guys working that day.

This pale blue is dreamy, wonderful to wake up to in the morning, especially with sparkling water right outside.

Colors are so hard to capture accurately; this one is slightly greener than in these shots.  Like the palest turquoise.

This room will need a 3rd coat; that goes on next week's work list.  Turns out Lemon Ice is a painter's nightmare color.  But it sure is purty.

 On Monday, it was a crew of 4.  More wall fixes, more ceilings, and the challenge of painting

the second and third floors, with their double-height ceilings.

I don't watch guys doing dangerous stuff on ladders, so there's no pictures of the work in action.  Just the results!

Come upstairs and take a look . . . .

On the second floor there's a big family room, and a hallway to the bedrooms and bath.

Our girls and their cousins used to take their sleeping bags up here, and wake to watch the sun rise over the water.  And then go back to sleep.

Also on Monday, the master bedroom and bath on the first floor were done
in Harbor Fog, a color that I thought would be more gray than it turned out to be.
Lesson:  Don't pick colors for a beach house when you
are in the hills of New Jersey; the light is so totally different.

 But it's a good color.  More blue than I'd planned.

The master bath IS the same Harbor Fog color, but with the light on it washes out a bit; looks pearl-y and lovely.

The oak vanity was painted in China White, and looks fab.  Old hardware will be replaced.

 On Tuesday, I woke to one of those breathless, calm mornings when

the air holds the very lightest veil of mist, and the water is still as a looking glass.

The painters took pictures with their phones to send to their wives.

I took this shot; the house looks so dark inside, because there is so much light outside.

Then it was time to work; Tuesday morning they began at six o'clock.

  Peggy and I chose Rich Cream for these walls;

it's a slightly lighter cream than Philadelphia Cream, but it actually looks about the same -- even a bit darker! --

because there is SO much light upstairs as compared to the first floor,

where an overhanging deck blocks full light.

 Whew!  If you are still with me, I salute you.

One more painting picture, the little powder room near the back entry.

My Mom called it her "frog room," because it was full of goofy frogs she had collected

or been gifted with, so we decided to go with green in their honor.

 Well now you know I'm a class act; I took these shots without even putting down the potty lid.

Again -- So hard to photograph colors!  And the light keeps changing each part of the wall to a different shade.  My sister is going to have to take my word for it that Pale Vista was indeed the right color for this room, until she can see for herself.

Oy.  Another potty shot.  Too much sharing?

I don't know why, but I seem to have missed taking a picture of the upstairs hall bath,

which is too bad as it's my favorite color of all of them!  It's called Icing On The Cake, and it's dreamy.

Although I'm not sure I'd eat cake with pale aqua icing . . . .

And one last transformation: the decks after powerwashing:

 I was astounded.  They need sanding and sealing, which we hope can be done next week.

 But Holy Smokes. . . what a change from the dark and mildewed state they were in.

Can't wait to park my carcass out here on a warm breezy summer afternoon, with some good

friends (or relatives!) and a tall cold beverage, and just feel any stress or tension ease away.

That's what water does, folks; it's eternal, and it puts things in perspective.

 ****************************************************************

The painters put in a 12 hour day on Tuesday, and finished this 3-story, 4 bedroom, 3 bath house.  I salute them.  Plus they cleaned up after themselves!  I stayed until Wednesday morning, then reluctantly backed out of the driveway . . . 

 turned onto the dirt right-of-way. . .

 and headed for civilization.

 As Dion and I passed through Aquebogue, heading west toward Riverhead and the Long Island Expressway,

we passed this sign . . . which I'm pretty sure you won't see anywhere else but here:

In its 61st year, the Modern Snack Bar is a North Fork institution, and believe it or not, it is

renowned for its mashed turnips.  Turnips were a big crop out here, and people love 'em. Well, how can you not?

Howard missed out on most of this week's painting Lollapalooza, as he had to return to That Old House

on Sunday; work on Monday, after all.  Dion was my constant companion, and he did mostly this:

I was glad to get home yesterday, but I'm looking forward to getting new flooring on the first floor,

and then pulling furniture out of storage, painting pieces to suit our new colors, and

making the beach house, so full of wonderful memories from the past 42 years,

the happy and welcoming place it was born to be, and always was.

Spring is really beginning to burst out here in northern New Jersey -- how lucky!  -- Cass

Visit Gina at The Shabby Chic Cottage

for more makeovers!

She's hosting Transformation Thursday.

Be there, or be square.

 Click here!

I'm also linking to Metamorphosis Monday,

at Susan's Between Naps On The Porch blog.

Click here to visit there!

Visit!  You won't be sorry.