It's Time for a House Project

It's uncharacteristic for me to post 2 days in a row. Maybe I'm making up for lost time. Or maybe I've got a lot of ideas in my brain. I think spending time browsing Pinterest is bringing something out in me - all these home decorating projects, great ideas, and new recipes to try...

So, the project on my brain these days?

Here's a hint:

I think I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna paint the kitchen.

I debated just leaving it be - because who really knows how permanent all of this is, right? But the motivation struck me last week and I decided I'd better go with it.

I'm just anxious to see what this kitchen could look like with this brick all painted out one colour. Anyone who's seen Young House Love's dark-and-dingy den to bright-and-airy living room transformation should know what I'm talking about.

(Does anyone else feel like they're being stared down by 2 black eye holes a jagged-toothed mouth?)

Up close you can see the black, white and salmon-speckled loveliness.

And don't forget the other wall of my kitchen:

I've decided I'm just not a paint-one-wall-bright-red kinda girl. It gives me a kind of unseasonal "Christmas" vibe that is really only suitable for a couple of months a year.

So, yes. I'm ready to see it go.

This part of the house also tends to be the drop-off area for shoes and backpacks and purses and sweaters since we usually come in the house through the sun room (which is just through a doorway to the left of the window you see above) and there is currently no place for all that paraphernalia to live. But Erik - who has, by the way, washed his hands of this entire painting-the-kitchen idea (though I'm secretly hoping he'll be sucked into the painting vortex once I get started) - is on jacket-and-backpack-hook-creating duty. So, we'll have some places to hang everything once it's all painted nice and pretty.

So, back to those paint swatches...

The colours probably won't look true in this picture, but maybe you can envision the colour family I'm kind of going with:

I had it narrowed down to 4 possibilities (which I highlighted above). I left the swatches on the counter for about a day and gazed at them every time I walked by. After several walk-bys, I eliminated 2 more and now I'm down to 2 options - Oriental Ivory and Shadow Dream (from ICI Paints).

If I were basing this decision on paint colour name alone, it would be Shadow Dream all the way. Really, doesn't it just sound so lovely? Oriental Ivory, on the other hand, is really throwing me off. It makes me think of some fancy-pants carpet. And it gives me a red-orangey kinda feeling. But, if I can get over the name, I really think Oriental Ivory is the one. It's got a bit more green in it while Shadow Dream has a bit more grey-blue.

Erik is trying to keep me real by continually telling me how much work I'm getting myself into (besides continually reminding me that he will be taking no part in all of this). So I'm trying to be realistic about how long this is going to take me (anything done in a house of young kids has to be done in stages - I've learned that much over the years).

So with that said, it's about time I get my butt in gear.