I'm Obessessed!

I'm just on a roll. Like I said before, I get an idea in my head and I fixate on it. Too bad it can't be the second set of draperies I'm working on right now! Instead it's my dining room I can't quit thinking about.

My kitchen was supposed to be the target for a makeover this summer. I want to paint the cabinets in there so bad I can't stand it. But, for some reason, I have gotten fixed on making my dining room more "workable" for me. Maybe it's because I've spent so much time in there lately sewing. Guess it's a good time of year for that as it's only... +/- 100 degrees outside!

I digress. Remember me saying I was going to neutralize the walls? Now that I've decided on the fixture redo, I'm working on the walls. I just am not getting to excited about ANY color I've looked at to repaint. I want to lighten and neutralize, but no color seems to be getting me in a tizzy. So, I had another idea. I love wallpaper, but darn it all...could I pick a harder room to do? What about going with a good textural element like a tone-on-tone or grasscloth? If money were no object, I'd be placing an order right now for a creamy metallic neutral grasscloth from Phillip Jefferies.

via Phillip Jefferies
Ooh la la!

Phillip Jefferies Large Damask 5128
Me likey!

I'm thinking a damask in a similar pattern to what's on the existing curtains like above. What a great juxtaposition it would be with the modern vibe of my boys' artwork that I still plan to keep front and center. It just seems like that huge expanse of space over the wainscoting needs more than just paint, but something subtle. I want to be able to change out the colors and decor scheme if I get sick of one and I am constantly surrounded by color on projects, so thus the need for neutral. I'm guessing that unless one of you kind suppliers [who might] be reading this feel like donating a stencil or wallpaper for me to "sell" to my readers (fingers crossed!), I'm probably going to end up doing a linen like paint treatment or a pearlscent stencil treatment (that I create) over a cream to achieve the same effect. And, I really need to pull this transformation off fairly quick as I also have furniture to redo and sell and veggies to freeze/can at the same time. Figures:)

I also want to paint the ceiling a super pale, barely there aqua blue. I want to create the feeling of wide open sky where the imagination can take flight since this is where I want to have family dinners on an old rustic farm table and work on projects when we're not eating. Nothing makes my imagination go into overdrive than feeling like I'm on top of the world.

This beautiful color I love and I've used before, but I'd probably cut it in half when mixing to go even lighter (it's actually lighter than it looks on screen):



Glidden's Almost Aqua

Then, I'd put a fresh coat of white trim paint on the ceiling medallion. I pulled together a composite in Photoshop of this room redone to the best of my ability. Want to see? Yea, me too. I nearly had a breakdown last night when my lovely computer decided to corrupt the file I'd spent forever on to show you! It should have been a quick computer "makeover", but my Mac kept crashing on me so it took about two days off and on to make. Then it just decided to wipe it out the last time it crashed. UGH!!!!! So, I'm going manual with this one. I'm going to pull together an old fashion mock up of sorts...on paper. Then I'll scan it to share with you. I've got this image coming together in my head of where I'm going with this, like always, except this time I'm going to actually put it on paper so everyone else can see what I'm thinking (SCARY!).