Adding Blue + White In The Kitchen

   

Recently I added a little touch of blue and white to my green kitchen cupboards and marble counter tops.

 IT ALL STARTED WHEN......

 

My sweet hubby brought home some white flowers that just cried out for a blue and white vase…..

I think it adds to the freshness of my kitchen, don’t you?

He also brought home some juicy ripe peaches. They just were crying out for a blue bowl.

I am having such fun adding a little of this and a little of that to my new kitchen. I tend to like very little on my counters so it is a bit hard for me to add anything, but as time passes I am finding a few things that I enjoy having out.

 I like the way the blue bowl picks up the color of my outdoor shutters and window box.

I think I will keep it this way for awhile.

Next color experiment will be…..

 

 

Family Room Update

   

 It is done!!

 

The family room now has a lighter fresher look.

Let me show you the before of the old paint color…..

BEFORE

Here is a comparison of the old paint color, and the new color right next to each other……

Both have almost the same pigments added to the paint base, but the old color is much darker, and a little more muddy. The new color is like French Vanilla Ice cream.

We painted the wainscoting the same color as all of the trim in my home, Swiss coffee. It has a makeover coming up in it's future!

AFTER

The view from my kitchen. This is my family room with its summer pillows of all blue and white, and summer accessories on the mantel. 

As you can see I get a lot of great light in this room especially this time of day. We are really enjoying the new light, soft feel of the new paint color.

Once we put in the new marble counter tops, and the white subway tile back splash I knew immediately the color of the family room walls needed to change.

They seemed to shout out at me for the very first time. 

Everything feels light, airy, and serene to me. These are all the qualities I love to have in my home.

I know we all spend time trying to make our homes LOOK a certain way, but to be honest I spend more time trying to make my home have a FEELING of calmness. 

If I can’t get this feeling with something I want to change I will wait until the perfect plan comes together.

We still have more to do, but for now we are going to enjoy all of my hubby’s hard work.

Next on the agenda is: finish out the wainscoting around the room to match what he did on the fireplace wall.

Add crown molding, and then, by golly, I think she will be all done!!!

If you would like to read the story of the changes in our Family room you can click HERE.

For those of you who would like to read about the evolution of my kitchen, just go to the search box on my sidebar, and type in Kitchen Update, and all of the blog post will be listed for you to read.

Today is the beginning of the week so I am going to make the best of this beautiful day and just….

ENJOY THE PROCESS!!!

 

 

How To Nail Down The Right Paint Color!

   

Some people can grab a paint color, and go for it, and live with the consequences. 

These are probably the same people that can go to the hairdresser, and make major changes because they know it is only hair and it will grow back.

Personally I am NOT that girl! When I get my hair cut differently, even slightly different I feel as if I am in the dentist chair.

When it comes to paint on the walls the paint sets the mood, or feeling in the room. It is what wraps around me every single day. It is NOT just paint in a can to me.

I want it to have all the qualities I have grown to love in my home for the last 37 years….

Warm, inviting, fresh, clean, and it needs to give a glow, and life to the room.

Whenever I choose a new paint color I will try to narrow it down to the top two colors that I think will work. I will live with it for an entire day before taking the plunge. I need to see it in all of the different qualities of lighting that changes in a room throughout the day.

This time I started with four different samplings of warm whites. I narrowed it down to three.

Then I narrowed it down to two, and not one of those was the perfect color.

Oh my, what is a girl to do?…..

....Study Why They Did Not Work

What I will look for:

1. Undertones that showed up that I don’t like………… I saw a pink undertone coming through first thing in themorning.

2. How the color reflects or absorbs light…… both colors absorbed light making my room look dead and flat, instead of the nice warm glow it has always had.

3. Do I need to go lighter, darker, or even brighter…….all of the colors I tried were in the right value. They all were  on the lighter side.

4. What was the feeling the color made me have……. none of the colors made me smile or feel like I could take a deep breath with a sigh of calmness. They did not have enough life to them. They just went flat in my room.

5. How the color marries to its surrounding

colors……..every color I sampled married well to all

of my surrounding colors.

After going through this process I realized the color I needed was right under my nose. It was my living room color.

It is like French Vanilla icecream.

Simple? Not so much!!

WHY?

As with most of the colors in my home I tweak, or make my own formulas by adding a touch of this, and a drop of that. 

I work with the tinter’s at the paint stores, and they help me concoct my formulas.

The color in my living room, and hallway are a special brew that was made over 12 years ago. Since that time the actual paint bases have changed. 

If the base is different, and they will vary from paint company to paint company, the color will be different if you try to use the same formula in a different base.

This is where modern day technology has been very helpful with the onset of computer matching. It is not an exact science, but it at least gets you in the right ball park.

Keep in mind a good tinter is worth their weight in gold. Once you find a good tinter that really knows paint and pigments, and how they work, be sure to maintain a good relationship with them, they are invaluable.

Most computers will pull up 4 different formulas, and it will tell the tinter which one is the closest match. It is up to the tinter to make a decision based on their knowledge of how pigments will mix together.

Since I am an active participant I looked at the formulas, and made the decision which one I felt would work based on my experience with color in my home. The tinter concurred so we moved forward.

Let me bring up another point here…..

If you are using a flat paint it will tint up more quickly and could possibly tint darker if you are using an old formula of an eggshell, satin, or semi-gloss, so keep that in mind and adjust the formula accordingly.

My original formula was an eggshell finish so we adjusted and made the formula slightly lighter. After the first try the hue was correct but the shade was too light so we added more pigment, and Voila it was almost spot-on!!

Close enough for even me, and I know I am way beyond picky.

So that my friends is the paint saga, and how you should analyze, and have your paint formula’s mixed up.

Kathysue now has a new paint formula on file for any upcoming touch-ups that might be needed.

I have named my color: VANILLA!!

Let the painting games commence!!!