Friday at dinner time the window dressing was up again and the loud speakers as well. In a week my kitchen had gone through a total make over!
My kitchen is yellow. That’s how I would describe it and I am sure anyone visiting here would too. I designed the carpentry - cabinet, drawers a s o - and it was built by skilled crafts people to match my 1920 house. This happened in 1998 and the twenty years passed have of course added it’s marks. Such as occasional smoke from the fire place providing ceiling, fireplace and wall papers grey greasy areas. My kitchen has frankly changed to my least likable room.
I have an utopian dream of repainting the carpentry in tones on a scale from purpur to light pink. I know, it sounds crazy, but the shades would be kind of dusty and I know it would be super cool. Not possible though. Because it would be way to much work and therefore totally out of my budget. That’s why utopian. So I’ve been stuck with my to parts worn out kitchen.
When my house brings me surprises they are of the bad kind. Water damages, heat pump failure, things breaking. The usual stuff home owners have to deal with, comes with the territory. But suddenly, some weeks ago, it gave me an unexpected nice surprise!
It turned out the water leak I had three years ago which caused damage on the kitchen floor was suddenly my friend. The insurance company would pay for renovating the floor! Sanding it and waxing it, I would practically get a new floor! This message I got at Valentine’s, what a treat!
So what better time to take care of the grey-greasy ceiling, the smokey fireplace and the dirty wallpaper?
Per and his daughter Elin (who used to live in my village) came here Monday and started the work. Washed the fireplace and the ceiling and worked the wallpapers smooth for painting them. Already on Monday the ceiling was painted and done and Tuesday the fireplace and the preparatory work of the wallpaper. Per and Elin were doing such a great job and are just the best!
My job was to pick a color for the walls. I had a clear picture, inspired by a special home in Greenwood which I house sat a couple of summers. The owners had played with colors in a way I wouldn’t have thought of. For example mixing a yellow and blue color in the same room. That’s what I was aiming for here!
I picked a very light frosty blue. I had consulted Trouble 1 and his color trained eye from his profession as an illustrator and artist. We agreed on the frost hopefully working both with the yellow carpentry and the grey wood panel at the bottom half of the wall.
Per painted on Wednesday afternoon but the light had fallen and I couldn’t make a correct judgement. Until Thursday morning. When the light was bright. And I could tell it didn’t work. Bummer. Damned.
The funny thing was the frost worked with the yellow. And it worked with the grey. But the three of them didn’t work together. It’s so interesting. Designing is like tuning a harmony. If you feel like something is off it is. It’s not like, hey, I’ll get used to it. No, it will continue to chafe on you and make you discordant. As with a harmony you have to find what’s out of tune. And fix it.
In this case I couldn’t take out the yellow although I wanted to. Not the grey either. I had to take the frost out. Which really sucked as that’s the one I wanted to keep!
Even more, I had to abandon my blue track. I couldn’t afford taking any more chances. I had to go for a safer track. Which turned out to be the pink one. Yeah, I know it sounds awful. But the pick is a dusty light shade where you find both magenta and beige depending on the light. And it works. It works really well! It brightens up the dull grey wood panel and the yellow carpentry looks… nicer. My only objection: it's a bit too feminine for my taste. But most important, my kitchen is in harmony. The cord is tuned and my soul is calm.
Yesterday evening my friend Mats and I celebrated our birthdays together, we are only days from each other. It’s an old tradition that’s been down for the last two years when we both turned 60. But last night we brought it to life again, and it was such a delight filling my just made over kitchen with our families, having a delicious dinner and a lot of fun together again.
No comments:
Post a Comment