Blue Ridge Parkway

Blue Ridge Parkway
October 15, 2015

Temporary Insanity...

... aka remodeling.

Here's our kitchen before-ish. We called this phase "getting rid of ugly". It was so satisfying that I don't think we got any really good before pictures.

The paint was high gloss, hunter green.This room was taken down to the studs.

Here's close to the same view after. We chose cherry cabinets, soapstone counters, and white glazed subway tiles. Others thought I should have demo-ed the brick chimney. I kinda liked it. Fortunately, we didn't have the budget to remove it. I am happy now and everyone likes it. 

We got a custom soapstone sink made to fit by our counter guys. It is my most favorite item in the entire house. It even beats out my soaking tub for that honor. 

Here's one slab of custom soapstone going in with three very strong masons. It was amazing to see it go in: a heavy 3-D puzzle with expensive material and cabinets - but no pressure!

Channeling old house colors

Scraping wall paper from my studio revealed old house paint colors. New paint choices echo, to some degree, the old house's layers.

The lighter blue will be for the "Haint" blue porch ceiling. It's Benjamin Moore HC-143 Wythe Blue. Haint is an old Southernism for ghost. And the folklore is alternately blue porch ceilings keep ghosts away or spiders away. Take your pick. I like including Southern folklore in our new/old house. Also, I think it will look cool.

The bright blue is for our kitchen island paint. It's Benjamin Moore 663 Teal Tone. The island will have some kind of butcher block top. It's gonna rock our kitchen along with our ultramarine blue stove.

my kind of place

a booth at a local antiques/makers' mall. what better home decor for a hospice nurse?

surprise

as a longtime watcher of Antiques Roadshow i have come to dread the "good news/bad news" comments. e.g., "the good news is that your highboy is worth $5,000 but the bad news is that if it wasn't refinished it would be worth $50,000".

so i have been shopping for bathroom vanities for our home renovation. new particle board vanities of the style i like are expensive and they're well- particle board! custom vanities - man, i don't even want to know the price tags of those. our designer recommended shopping for a vintage piece of furniture to retrofit with a sink. i was a little ambivalent. but i was convinced when i thought i could find a piece of furniture that was well enough made to be retrofitted but not so precious that i was committing an antiques sin.

i found a red-painted wood vanity that i liked and bought it. the drawers were dovetailed and made of solid wood. here's what a drawer looked like as i bought it:

i thought i might redo it with some milk paint for a cottage look. i read that milk paint sticks best when it is applied to clean wood surfaces so i stripped it.

imagine my surprise when i found this underneath. very Deco. i am not going to paint over this interesting veneer wood. i ordered some unobtrusive dark pulls. it's going to have a neat vintage vibe in my bathroom. and i won't have to feel guilty. i am renovating something someone else has muddled.