This blog chronicles my life as I try to balance healthy lifestyle habits with my husband's penchant for pizza rolls and my daughter's desire to watch iCarly 8 hours a day. It contains a mostly humorous, kind, and somewhat spiritual look at everyday life and the people who live it.

Monday, January 10, 2011

The Green House Transformation

The exterior color of my house happens to be green.  Believe me, this was not arrived at by easy decision (remember the TMPP???), nor is it coincidental that for someone who loves things to be "green" the exterior of my house reflects that love.  But we'll get to the exterior later.  Right now, we're going to the kitchen.

Yep, the kitchen.  This year I am going to redecorate each room in my house using only paint, fabric, and perhaps an accessory or two.  Each transformation has to occur for around $100 (my self-imposed budget restriction) and has to be as "green" as possible.

I'm starting with the kitchen.

Here is my kitchen now:

My kitchen is very large and very monochromatic because while the previous owner did a great job choosing quality cabinetry, beautiful hardwood floors, and gorgeous granite, she also chose them in all the same color.

Here is a close up of the wall color and curtains now:

The walls are a gray-green by Benjamin Moore called October Mist.  The fabric has a lot of black in it.  Here is how it looks against the granite counters:

Not bad, right?  But kind of busy for the look I'm going for. 

Here are the new inspiration fabrics:

There is still some black so the counters make sense, but a lot of ivory, cream, gold, and khaki tones too.  This is my plan:

Paint the walls Benjamin Moore's Windham Cream.  This cream has enough yellow in it to pop against the white woodwork and play up the gold:

I know it looks more gray here...but trust me, it's not


Then I'm going to take the polka dot fabric and use it as valances.  The floral will become the seat cushion for the new window seat that I want built here:
Doesn't this cluttered, unused corner cry out for...something?  How about a cute little built-in storage bench?  Can I hear an Amen?

The solid gold fabric I'll use to trim the other two fabrics, as a table runner, and in the throw pillows I'll put on the window seat.

I"m really going to try to pay attention to every detail.  Like making over even the smallest eyesores, like this one:

Could that bottle be any less attractive?  Probably not, but with the help of a great tutorial I found on another blog, I'll show you how it's going to look fabulous!  Are you with me?  I hope so, because I've got a lot of work to do, very little budget, tons of inspiration, but also a lot convincing (nagging) to get my husband to go along with my schemes.

What do you think of the color scheme and ideas thus far?  It's the perfect time to weigh in because I haven't done anything yet!!!