Yesterday Smalls took a 2-hour nap. During that time I painted the top cabinets in Benjamin MooreSuper White. Later, her friend came over with her nanny, so I did some more painting. At night I painted the oven “unit” green. All the cabinets are pretty much done save for some places daylight and guests’ eyes will never see.
Painting kind of sucks. It’s like that Vegas scene from Swingers. At first you’re like, “Vegas, baby, Vegas!” and then after a few hours in the car you’re like, “I want out.” It’s the corners and niches and angles that kill me. But it was worth it. I love the result.
The lower cabinets and oven unit are painted in Benjamin Moore’s Home on the Range. Like I said the other day, I really wanted to duplicate the look of this Paris flat by Philippe Harden with sky blue walls. After much trial and error, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to make sky blue work. Many of you responded on my Facebook page that you liked Fantasy Blue. My BFF gently said, “Do it– Don’t be a wuss!” But if you guys had seen it from this end you’d have seen what I saw: A wall that needs to be an earthier color.
Makes sense because my feng-shui master said our kitchen needed more earth when she did our chart. Yes, you heard me right. I have a feng-shui master. Her name is Catherine Brophy and she is fabulous. More on that later, grasshoppers.
So I realized I needed to pull from a tone in the much-despised granite. I know, I know, many of you love your granite. Well you can have mine! Give me quartz, give me marble, metal, flagstone, limestone, caesarstone, paper rock and scissors– anything but granite. Why? Granite hides dirt. Why would I want the dirt to be hidden? I WANT TO SEE IT SO I CAN WIPE IT AWAY!
That said, I know there are nice granites out there. Mine is not one of them. Mine looks like the ground only it’s the place where I put my food.
Since I can’t change the countertop I’m giving in to it. I’m just going to draw from one of the many colors in it for the wall. Once I realized I needed to embrace what already exists, what I cannot change, life got easier. My dirty granite counter is a metaphor for life.
My in-laws are coming MONDAY so the clock is ticking. As my sister-in-law said, “You’d better get it done– I need space to bake my pies!”
Smalls is napping and I’m about to try 2 new colors on the wall: Cotton Tail and Bone White. Fingers crossed!
