Color in the Kitchen

I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colors. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.  -Sir Winston Churchill

What do you think of painted cabinets? I have maple in my kitchen and I like them, but I think  if I had a choice I would choose color...maybe a combination of both wood and paint.

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Blue Cabinets

Green Cabinets

Red Cabinets

Yellow Cabinets (my favorite)

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Iris Apfel

Who is Iris Apfel?

Apfel burst onto the international stage in 2005, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art put the octogenarian’s flamboyantly bohemian personal wardrobe—antique Chinese robes, haute-couture feathered coats, operatic necklaces, many of them made to her eccentric order—on display in its Costume Institute. And now she is literally taking her mix-master taste on the road, from advising fashion-school students to designing a forthcoming collection of costume jewelry.
Architectural Digest

Her home is full of interesting collections, beautiful fabrics and an eclectic assortment of furniture. I love how she keeps adding layers, not worrying about anything matching. I personally could never live with so much, but I get so much creative inspiration when I see a home like this.

Check out Architectural Digest to read more about this fascinating lady.

French Tables

I'm getting more projects done and out of my basement. I've decided my favorite things to paint are small side tables and large hutches. The small tables are fun because you can go crazy with color and I love the difference a little color adds to a large hutch.

I completed a set of french style end tables and I tried a little something different by adding the yellow.

Claude & Claudine

Next project is a large hutch for my friend Jen!

Paint Inspiration

My dining room is now free of clutter! I spent the weekend organizing, not my favorite thing to do, but now I'm free to paint. I need to finish up some furniture projects in my basement and I thought I'd share some inspiration images...

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I am loving the striped furniture I've been seeing in blogland, another favorite is the french two toned look...fun stuff!

This & That

At this current time, I can't see my dining room table...too many projects. I also have a basement full of things "to do".

Like these...

I actually painted these months ago, I just need to recover the seats...not my favorite thing to do.

I did get this frame painted...

but now I need new glass because I can't get the crud off the glass edges.

I was so excited when I found this lampshade on Etsy...

I thought I could recreate this in a simpler form for my "new" old lamps.

Not liking this look...first, it's not done...I ran out of ribbon and can't find it anywhere and second, I'm having a hard time making the ribbon tight. So I'm putting this aside to revisit later (so I won't throw it out the window).

I did get something completed that I love...well, actually my artist daughter completed a project...

So no new projects for me until I can see my dining room table...and then maybe I should stick to painting furniture.

Color your World

Do so many people really love a home filled with burlap, sisal, and natural linen with white painted and bleached wood? Not me and I'm thrilled when I find a home filled with lots of color.

This is why I would like to introduce Susan Sargent. Susan is an artist, fabric and rug designer living in Vermont. Her book Colorscapes, explains how to create a personal color palette and presents an original approach to the process of picking colors for your home. Each chapter features a different location and is devoted to a unique color concept. Colorscapes, is what made me start to rethink how I could combine colors in my home.

"My color choices are guided by my strong belief that bringing the right Colors into our homes is a sure-fire way to improve our moods, creativity, and energy.  My colors are lively without being overwhelming, saturated and vivid without being electric. The yellows are warm, tending towards apricot and mango. The blues have an appealing nod towards periwinkle. My signature green tilts towards lime, which makes it work beautifully with the yellows, reds and blues in the range. I believe my colors are balanced in a way that promotes a warm, comforted feeling when used throughout the home.
And while I have colors I believe in, and which I feel are for thriving, there are also colors, which I personally abhor, and find repellent! I strongly believe living with these colors induces lethargy, boredom, lack of energy, and sadness. These include: Beige, beige, and beige!! Muddy browns! Mustard, all variations! Somber maroons, drab olives, uninteresting navy blues, and enervating dark greens. Other Environmental and Well-being misses: Kelly Green, acid lemon, flat brownish pinks, brownish institutional greens, sharp purples and oranges, screaming pinks, dispirited mauve's, fire engine reds, and brown, beige, and brown!" Susan Sargent

Although I don't agree on her color choices, I love how she has such a definitive palette. I've been working on my own color palette for a few years now, as I have mentioned many times before, aqua is my favorite color and starting point to my homes color scheme.

I love all blue-green colors, from teal to aqua and a close second is yellow/green, from chartreuse to apple. My warm side choices are apricot, yellow and red. I prefer colors that look aged and I don't care much for pastels. My latest color crush is brown not to be confused with beige, and I think black is needed to add a little sophistication. The colors I can live without are fuchsia, gray, beige, and anything neon.

I had fun making my color collages on Picnik

Camp Freckle Face

Houzz has featured another fun, eclectic home. This vintage style place belongs to Jenny Mitchell and her blog Frecklewonder is full of her collections from the 40's, 50's and 60's. As a fellow "freckle face" I took a peak because of the name, but stayed a follower for the style.

I love viewing homes that scream individual personality, maybe because this is what I strive for, a home unlike any other.

Thank you Houzz and Jenny!