A couple of other design decisions made:

Over the front door I currently have a wooden oval with the word Welcome in gold on it. I'm thinking I'll replace that with something like this, which I like quite a lot:


I also want to replace the current wall sconces we have in the living room. They are nothing fancy but I'm thinking more of using wrought iron accents and I think any one of the below would be good. They are in order to my current preference:



I also want to replace the wooden wall clock with the heart shaped face. I found the following and thought they might tie in nicely with the wrought iron for the scones. Once again they appear in order of my preference.


What do you think?

Switching 'em up~

A few weeks ago I bought some pillows for our new sectional. I bought 2 of each...sand/beige color, green and pumpkin colors. I hated the sand/beige color immediately. Fell completely in love with the pumpkin and found I could tolerate the green though I wasn't all that jazzed about them. Here they are: (you can see the sand/beige ones in the left bottom corner)
I finally got around to taking the ones I wasn't keeping back to Pier One on Sunday.I hadn't really planned to get any others...until I walked in the door and spied these immediately:
The greens ones will be going back soon :)

With the purchase of these new pillows I think I have come a great deal closer in deciding on a paint color for the the living room.Top row, second color from L to R is Devine's Damask and the very bottom color is Ellen Kennon's Mushroom.

I'm thinking that I'd like to paint the wall with the quilt rack (which will be taken down and not rehung) in the Damaskas well as the short wall seen here with the television in front of it. The television also won't remain where it is currently.
all the other walls will be painted the Mushroom. There is no ceiling in the living room, but there is a ceiling going down the hall toward the master bedroom...that will be painted Mushroom as well.

So what do you think??? (If I go with the Damask...the beloved pumpkin pillows will have to go back to Pier One with the green ones! boo)

Hanging Around~

I've been looking through various sites I saved and came across this one again: www.jp33.com
This site showcases the art work of Jeremy Prasatik. You can purchase prints for $20.00 in 13x19 size. I love these 3 and I'm trying to figure out which one to buy. This one is called Majestic and it is my favorite. I love it. I love all the pastel shades in the background.

This one is called A Modern Twist and I really like teh circles behind the tree.
I really like this one as well and I'd absolutely adore it if it didn't have the rainbowy colors above the trees. I love the silhouettes of the evergreens and the orange shadows. The rainbows...not so much. Though they do make it interesting.

Decisions...decisions...

Adding one of these~

This is a Honeywell whole house humidifier. The hubby and I have been sick the last few days and as is typical this time of year we are suffering from lack of moisture in the air.

I sent the hubby out to get some over the counter meds and he came back with those and the humidifier!

Today he is feeling better so he is installing the humidifier. The video that came with it says installation should take about an hour. HA!

Almost 5 hours later and one more trip to Home Despot and he's almost there. Apparently this box had been open and was missing several very key parts. I'm worried that it won't work properly when the hubby gets it all hooked up...but I'm trying to not speak that thought out loud just yet. I think if he had not already installed the main piece to our furnace ductwork he would've taken the whole mess back but opted for just picking up the missing parts to carry on with the job.

I hope this works cause I really don't wanna have to say "I told ya to call the heating and cooling guy". The hubby is quite handy so it'll probably turn out fine. I rarely ever get to say I told ya so.

Here's hoping my poor, dry, burning, aching nasal passages feel soft and supple soon~

**2/13/07 update: My fears were realized...this humidifier did not work. The transformer was junk. In hubby's defense I'll have to blame the fact that he was sick himself and trying to do something to make us both feel better. Otherwise I know he never would've purchased a box that had obviously been opened. I'm assuming that this humidifier had been returned and instead of finding its way back to Honeywell it ended up back on the shelf. Damn the bad luck...ours. Hubby took the unit off our furnace and boxed it back up last night. However, we're getting a major snow/ice storm so I doubt it will be returned today...probably not even tomorrow. *sigh* The good news is that we're both getting better. I guess we'll have a whole house humidifier for the next time~

New Living Room Furniture Arrived!!

Well, here it is. Ain't it purdy?? I love it, but it sure did swallow up the room!
My beloved rocker/recliner won't fit in the room anymore! Dammit! At least until we knock that stinkin' wall out and give the room an additional 3+ feet to the right of the rocker. Doing that will change the configuration of the room and allow the rocker to come back. At least that is the plan.

When John gets home from work we're going to play around with the furniture and see how things will be when the wall goes down and new carpet is laid that reflects the additional living room space.

Oh and I'm going to whine about the fact that my old end tables DO NOT match the new coffee table (I tried to tell him that when we were buying the stuff but noooooooooooooooo he could not listen then he was sure they were the same...why can he NOT remember that HE is color blind???) Hopefully it's not too late to order the matching end tables...they were being discontinued. If it's too late...I'm going to be pissed.

I'll try to take photos of the furniture rearranging when we do it. It may not happen until the weekend. Depends on how we both feel at the end of the day if we're up to tugging furniture in circles :)

Think I'll go down now and lounge on the pretty new sofa :)

**Why is that we never seem to notice the clutter that is sitting around until we look at photos?

More paint sampling~

I finally got around to putting up most of the samples that came in the last week or so. Here they are:
From the top L to R: Devine Paints Fog and Skyline. Right below Fog is Devine's Agave. You can see a bit of Ellen Kennon's Gustavian Gray below that.
This is the purple section. The very top color is Devine Paints Shantung. This color is definitely out. It's way too dark for my taste. Below that is BM Wet Concrete and Silver Fox. Third row is Citrons Vintage Velvet and Monsoon. The Monsoon is off the list as being too blue. Final sample is Ellen Kennon's Lilac Mist, which I like a lot.
These two colors are: Top BM's Monticello Rose, which my daughter vetoed and below that is Ellen Kennon's Caribe. I'm kind of liking the Caribe and depending how it looks with the print I ordered that could be the paint choice. Courtney pretty much said for us to paint the room what we want since it's going to become a guest room once she has a place of her own.
These are some blues I tried out. The top color is Ellen Kennon's Slate, love this shade of blue. The middle and bottom colors are from Devine Paints and they are called Tide and Swell. Both are very pretty colors, though I prefer Swell as it is a bit more blue gray.This section is the more neutral/tan colors. Top L to R: Ellen Kennon's Bronze and Bark. John actually likes the Bronze which surprised me and I do have to admit the color has grown on me as it has dried more thoroughly. Second Row L to R: Ellen Kennon's Terracotta Sand and BM's Pecos Spice. The bottom color is Ellen Kennon's Mushroom.

I'll only be referring to the top 4 colors as the bottom 5 were in the above photo. The top 4 are all from Devine Paints. Top from L to R: Haze and Damask. The next row L to R: Brick and Mesa. I love all 4 of these colors and so does John.
This is what the wall looks like right now! ** I just clicked on this photo and looked at it. This photo once enlarged is the best representation of the colors as I see them on the wall. Closer to reality than the individual sample photos.**

I have 5 more samples of Devine paints in various shades of green. I'll try to apply those this afternoon and post photos.

My new living room furniture arrived this a.m. and I'll post photos soon. I love the color of the sectional. That will be a major determining factor is paint choice for the living room/dining/kitchen area. Stay tuned~

Decorating with Words~

Quite awhile ago I saw a picture in a magazine that showed words on walls as decoration. I fell in love with the idea and bookmarked a couple of sites for future reference.

Now that we're beginning to formulate plans for some remodeling I've begun to go back to those saved bookmarks and revisit them. A few of the ideas no longer appeal but many others still fill me with that same sense of anticipation and excitement that prompted me to save them in the first place.

Decorating some walls with words is one of those ideas that I still get all giddy about. So today I ordered the two sayings that I wanted most:

Always Kiss Me Goodnight~

This one will be in gold metallic matte finish in the above shown font and will be placed above our bed when we've repainted the walls. I love this sentiment.

This one will also be in gold metallic matte finish, the same font shown in the photo and will be placed in our new master bath above the light switch. The last place the hubby is before he leaves for work in the morning. Of course the G and S will be replaced by a J and V since those are our initials. :) We always say I love you when we part...except in the mornings when he is off to work since I am not usually awake. That's always bothered me. What if John was in an accident on his way to work and I didn't have the opportunity to send him off with a final I love you? I'll feel better about that with this on the wall. Yes, I'm a sap sometimes.

Incase you'd like to do your own decorating with words here are a couple of sites I've used and recommend:

http://www.wonderfulgraffiti.com

http://www.wallwords.com

First Room Up for Redecorating~

My daughter will be 22 in July. Her room at the moment is painted a very dark green color called Holly and has a chair rail border that is bunnies and teddy bears. It was cute when she was 10...not so much almost 12 years later.

She has been away at college for the last 4 years and her room has sat largely unused except for breaks and summers. She graduates in June but will be going on to grad school. We've come to realize that she will probably never live here again full time. With that in mind we have decided the time has come to redecorate her room, make it more sophisticated and not so much childish. This way she can enjoy it more when is here and it will be a more suitable guest room when she is not.

I saw a link to this site that has reproduction prints and I saw one that I really liked, so I ordered it. I plan to use it in Courtney's bedroom. Here it is:


I ordered the 18x13 size and will have it framed. I can't wait till it arrives. With the colors in this print in mind I will begin looking for paint colors and bedding.

Any ideas what direction I should go?

**Adding the link to the company the print was purchased from www.Paris1903.com

On the verge~

This evening we popped into Home Depot to pick up a large bucket and since we were there we decided to have a look around at the tile, granite, marble area and see what we liked and didn't like. This was our first time to be in any store that had these things available to look at since we made the decision to do a remodel.

We wandered around a bit through the appliance area and I showed John the type of cook top I wanted and then we discussed the merits of stainless steel appliances. He likes them, I hate them. I think they look industrial and I have no desire to deal with the fingerprints. None. W have a white Amana side by side fridge now that works perfectly. I see no reason to get rid of it. We have a white stove with a black door face on it that will have to go because we will be changing to a cook top and double oven set up. Then our dishwasher has a black and white front. All 3 of our appliances are 11 yrs. old and work perfectly. Since the dishwasher/sink area will not be moved I don't see any point in getting rid of the dishwasher until it dies. Even then I doubt it will be replaced with SS.

Then we ventured over to the tile area and found quite a few that we both liked. I didn't take any information down as Kylie was with us and we'd been out and about all day and she was ready to go home and have dinner. But we did come across an entire aisle that had pallets of tile on clearance and we found a floor tile that we both liked for a price that is more than reasonable. Three hundred dollars for enough to do our 19x25 kitchen/dining room space when we finish the remodel. I've looked around the Internet but can't find the tile any place. All I can remember about it is that it was from the DaVinci collection, style Maui and color 5. I googled that and came up with tons of references to Leonardo Da Vinci but not Da Vinci tiles. I must be missing a key piece of information for locating the tile online.

Anyway, we didn't buy it. We wanted to remeasure the area to be sure we had the numbers right. Since it's a clearance item there won't be any returning it or getting more. Making the purchase makes us nervous! It's the first step toward making these ideas a reality. SCARY!!!

I'll let you know if we go through with it and buy it tomorrow~