A Day for Walls, and the Great Outdoors!

It is Wednesday (although just barely!) and I am participating in What's On Your Walls? and Outdoor Wednesday. You can find the links to the lovely hostesses (thank you, Susan at A Southern Daydreamer, and Barb at Grits and Glamour) who have created these special blogging days, below, so you can visit and see what the other participants have been up to!

Outdoor Wednesday

What's On Your Walls Wednesday


On my walls? Right now, paint, mostly. I haven't hung much in the way of framed things. But the paint? Whoa, baby, that gave me fits.

If I added up all the paint Howard and I have slapped on walls, I'd have -- well, I'd have one heck of a lot of paint. So, when we bought That Old House nearly a year ago, we figured we'd paint it ourselves.

All ten rooms of it.

One room later (in a Sherwin Williams soft green I can't remember the name of) ...

. . . and realizing that there were still 9 rooms to go, my husband suggested to me that the sweetest words in the world are not "Your Ebay item has been shipped," but ... "Pay the man!"

For the first time, we hired painters. Bliss and terror, in one fell swoop.

Bliss, because Danny and his crew gave an amazingly affordable quote for stripping wallpaper, fixing old plaster, and painting. Terror, because Danny handed me the enormous and intimidating Benjamin Moore color fan deck, and said, "Choose your colors. By tomorrow morning."

Yikes! I love color. I am a color junkie. But to choose so many colors from weensy little cardboard rectangles . . . scary stuff!

(The painters used the empty kitchen as their home away from home.)

I begged and got 2 days to make my choices. While Danny and the crew tore off wallpaper, patched, spackled, sanded . . . I sat at a tiny table in our conservatory and pored over those Benjamin Moore colors.

Here's what I finally chose, and what is on my walls!

Our front hall, above. To the left, the parlor in progress. The hallway is Moore's HC-45 Shaker Beige, which we used for the stair well and upstairs hall, also. You can see our red dining room through the doorway, in 1300 Tucson Red. More of that room is here.

Below, the parlor, in its new coat of HC-44 Lenox Tan. Surprisingly, Lenox Tan, Shaker Beige and Tucson Red are among Moore's most popular colors. I had no idea. My daughter Anne says I must have common tastes. Aren't children delightful? Well, she was kidding. She was. Really.

Now... up the front stairs...

The upstairs hall -- you can see the progress. Wallpaper down, walls under repair, spackle and primer on ... and finally the finished hall with its fresh clean paint!

This is the back bedroom, our official "guest room." It started as an aggressive lavender -- two shades -- with a wide floral border. It is now a clear pale yellow -- 198 Cornsilk. I love yellow walls; they make antique wood glow.

The hall bath. It is wearing a fresh coat of HC-143 Wythe Blue. This is a slightly more intense shade of HC-144 Palladian Blue -- the color we put in our master bedroom.

The front bedroom, nominally our daughter Alida's room, although as she is living in California for 5 years of graduate school, it is actually another guest room. It is painted in 015 Soft Shell, a pink that flirts a bit with peach. Very pretty color!

Not shown: my daughter Anne's rooms; she has two connecting rooms across the hall from the pink bedroom, but they are not yet painted. Anne wanted to do them herself. Yeah, that's worked out well. We are negotiating. As for my kitchen, it was due for renovation this year, but we are postponing it; I will live with its gold-ish walls for awhile longer.

Because of all the colors, I used the same paint for all of the woodwork, I-79 Atrium White. I am happy with my color choices, but oh my! I much prefer the usual system -- pick your rugs or fabrics first; you can always have paint mixed to match!

Now... for Outdoor Wednesday ... you can read the explanation, or just skip down to the pictures and enjoy! They are of Corey Creek, an inlet off Peconic Bay, and taken from my parents' front lawn.

Long Island is shaped like a fish, sort of, with its far ends slanting north and east into the cold Atlantic. The two "fins" at Island's end are called the "Forks." The South Fork is home to the fabled and gorgeous Hamptons, with wonderful fishing and farming, a rollicking social scene, and of course -- Ina Garten.

The North Fork is a much smaller land mass, and quieter than its riotous cousin across Peconic Bay. Dozens of vineyards and wineries have rescued the farming business (the climate and soil are almost identical to that of France's Bordeaux region), and the pace of life is slower, and I think sweeter.

In the winter of 1969, my parents saw a classified ad in the Sunday New York Times for a waterfront summer house in Southold, on the North Fork; they drove out and bought it that day.

In the 40 years since, the little house was expanded once, then twice, then again, and then in 1991 it was torn down completely, and my parents built their dream retirement place, a three story house with plenty of bedrooms, multiple decks, and a water view from every window.

This is what you see from their front lawn:
Now, to me, that is the Great Outdoors!
Thanks for visiting!

Dining Rooms and Draperies and Decisions, Oh My!

Once upon a time we bought an old house; among its charms was a dining room of gracious proportions and great possibilities. That was eleven months ago, and the dining room is still an unfinished work.

Below, early days. Walls a sort of pinky-beige, overprinted with a stamped design, with deep maroon woodwork and heavy curtains. There's a patch of test paint; I really wanted this room yellow, but the room just wouldn't cooperate.

It insisted on being painted red. I chose Benjamin Moore "Tuscan Red," blissfully unaware that the color is actually "Tucson Red" (#1300) until daughter Anne told me.

Kids are useful. They are very good at pointing out our mistakes.

Painting progress, below. Tinted oil primer, and lots of plaster wounds being repaired. We used professional painters, first time ever, and they were good. Bless their hearts.

Jump ahead a couple of months, to May of 2008, and we are moving in: boxes everywhere,
and swatches of possible drapery fabrics blue-taped up on the window moldings.

The room's breakfront is an Ebay find, and I learned a valuable lesson -- never bid on two similar things at once, no matter how much you need furniture, because you may end up with One Breakfront Too Many.

The former chandelier was perfectly fine -- a rusty finish and opalescent glass shades --
but the room said it wanted crystal. Swarovski crystal (well, I wanted Swarovski; it's so sparkly).
As usual, I obeyed the house.

I found this crystal chandelier online, and am still somewhat startled by its size and brilliance when lit, but it's become a member of the family. The old fixture is looking for a new home.

A few months ago, and things still all a mish-mash, the front hall and parlor still full of boxes. That's an old buffet (above) -- a Craigslist treasure -- with a lovely old marble top. It critically needed refinishing and repair, and again I used a pro. Getting lazy in my old age.
No rug, no curtains. But progress goes on....
Voila! A rug, switched from our study, and what appear to be draperies. Ha. Fooled you. We installed drapery rods and, the night before Thanksgiving, my girls and I cut 9-foot lengths of fabric and lining and just clipped the raw fabric to the curtain rings.
I blush to admit that the fabric panels are still there. No proper draperies yet. And I can't make up my mind. . . .

I have the gold-colored "faux" silk (budget doesn't run to the real stuff!), which is hanging there temporarily and goes well with the rug (which is reds and olives and golds), but I also have the same fabric in a beautiful red which is a spot-on match for the walls of Tucson Red.
We are having a House Blessing party on March 14, and I want something at my windows by then, so (left) is a picture of both colors of fabric. I am leaning toward using the red, perhaps because I am so tickled that it is such a good match to the paint. Annie says the gold is best, for a bit of contrast.

(The red fabric is still uncut, and is just tossed over the drapery rod!)

Which color?
What do you think?

My sewing machine awaits!