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More Kitchen Inspiration

May 17, 2007 By Paola 1 Comment

Pic from Sunset via Decor8

Holly over on Decor8 has just posted this picture as part of a discussion about purple and I am madly in love with it for all sorts of reasons.

Loving the mix of aqua and lavender and may now have to revise my kitchen colour scheme to include some of the latter (wouldn’t a really knocked back lavender look lovely with my breadbin?) Loving the way this mixes traditional elements such as subway tiles and wood planking with more contemporary elements such as stainless steel, up-to-date colours and freestanding pieces. Just loving that breakfast bar/island thingymajig, period.

The photo is of course made by the splash of orange in the middle, though the curly display stand thingy is the only thing in the kitchen I don’t like.

I’m SO excited about the deck! Mr Handyman is doing the most incredible job, and while there has been, as the Husband would put it, a certain amount of ‘feature creep’ and it’s taking longer than billed, the end result is going to be spectacular. Photos soon.

Garden Desires

May 14, 2007 By Paola 3 Comments

So here’s the brief I gave Brian the garden designer.

– Colour scheme as above. Lots of orange, purple and hot pink with dark purple and dark green foliage and maybe the odd splash of lime green.

– ‘Messy’ planting contained within strong structural shapes

– A tiny camomile lawn somewhere (a romantic dream of mine ever since reading ‘The Camomile Lawn’)

– a little herb garden

– a ‘New Dawn’ rose. Both my previous gardens have had one and it will make me feel at home

– room for one of these under the cherry tree

– a patch of earth where the Minx and I can grow things ourselves. She has so far announced that she would like to grow a ‘hee-yooooge punkin’ as in the seminal gardening tome ‘Meg’s Veg’.

I think we need a bigger garden.

In the meantime someone who calls himself Mr Handyman is coming tomorrow to pressure wash the roof deck, stain the furniture, paint the deck floor and fix plexiglass to the railings to make it more kid friendly. So hopefully there’ll be some before and after shots to show you before too long.

Garden Design

May 5, 2007 By Paola 4 Comments

So on Wednesday I had my first chat with a garden designer.

The previous owners had plans drawn up last year to redo the front and back yards and we’re piggybacking off the plans they had done to get the back garden sorted out (the front garden will have to wait until next year or until we win the lottery).

I’m a bit nervous about the process as we didn’t do as much research as we should have done into Seattle-based designers, nor did we get any competitive quotes – the completed plans lying on the kitchen countertops were just too tempting, as the was the fact that the company specialises in organic gardening. But Brian seemed lovely and very amenable to my ideas (which he called ‘fun’. This could of course be a euphemism.)

I’ve never worked with an interior or garden designer before and I’m really looking forward to the experience. I sort of know what I like when it comes to gardens, but don’t know much at all about what goes where, what grows where and how to group plants together. Fortunately the climate in the Pacific North West is so similar to that of the UK that many of the plants I love the most should grow well here.

At the moment the garden is decidedly oddly configured, with a down-at- heel patio that seems to be expressly designed to draw you away from the lawn and towards the very un-picturesque driveway, and with a wall round the lawn which acts as a barricade. Even the Minx seems confused when she goes outside as to whether she’s ‘allowed’ to climb the steps and run about on the lawn.

We’re going to rejig the previous plans somewhat so that there is a definite progression from a pretty seating area to a small area of lawn; some sort of fence and gate to the left to trap in the Minx, and lots of underplanting round the tree (which is currently a mass of weeds). As for planting – I didn’t even look at what the previous owners had requested, as I’ve got a pretty good idea that their taste will not exactly coincide with mine.

Kitchen Inspiration

May 3, 2007 By Paola 8 Comments

Look what the postman brought me today!

It’s apparently a genuine 50s enamel breadbin found in some warehouse in Holland. Or that was the Ebay seller’s story anyway. Actually the condition bears this out – its definitely vintage and is in pretty much mint condition, with the manufacturer’s sticker on the lid.

And it goes very nicely with my butter dish (china made to look like vintage tupperware, I’m definitely going to get some of those in the shop) and my very favourite Le Creuset spatulas. The colour scheme for the downstairs kitchen is now pretty much a done deal, I would say.

Bedroom Wallpaper

April 27, 2007 By Paola 5 Comments

On a complete tangent, since I don’t think we’re going to be focusing on the bedroom for quite some time, I saw this wallpaper by Designer’s Guild advertised today and fell totally and utterly in love.

Worth a feature wall surely?

Now I just need to find a stockist somewhere in the US. One day soon I’m going to have to transfer my loyalties from UK designers and UK companies, because it’s going to start getting really expensive.

Sampler

April 25, 2007 By Paola 6 Comments

Am very happy with my first Ebay purchase for the Minx’s bedroom.

I don’t particularly want her to have very babyish decor – just art and pictures which are jolly and cheerful which she can treasure over the years. She is already very fond of her ‘lady’ and likes to discuss the colours of the flowers and and her clothes and the ‘Christmas trees’.

I like it because it’s beautifully worked in cross stitch on linen which has turned slightly brown with age, and because I rather like the sentiments expressed. It’s nice to think that all the work that someone put into this will continue to be appreciated (at least by me) and I’m glad the Minx will have something old and loved in her room aside from all the plastic tat. I might have to reframe it at some point though, as the fact that the central line isn’t straight is really bugging me. (It’s tough being a Virgo).

Unlike my agonies of indecision about the main living and dining room, the scheme for the Minx’s bedroom is crystallizing apace in my mind and packages are arriving from various online shops at frightening speed. I’ll put a bunch of pictures up together so you can see how it’s coming along when I get a moment.

In the meantime think green and pink, flowers and frog princes.

Fireplace Thoughts

April 17, 2007 By Paola 5 Comments

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your votes and comments on the fireplace poll. Tons of food for thought, though with ‘paint it white’ and ‘paint it and the walls toning colours’ running neck and neck, you’ve also confused me further.

Here’s where my thinking is heading so far, which is not very far.

I’m slightly reluctant to paint it white as there are already a lot of white-painted features in the room (bookshelves and wall panelling) and I feel the fireplace needs to be differentiated somehow. And I know that once it’s painted white it will stay white.

At the moment my thinking on this room is headed in one of two ways. To keep the basics of the room white or neutral, but then to furnish it with zingy, bright accessories as in this picture from the ever-inspirational Decor8 (though standing next to the fireplace all day wearing a tangerine minidress would surely get a bit boring after a while). In which case stripped (the fireplace, not me) as here, might be the best way to go. However, I’ve never done neutral before, and am wondering if I’d get a bit bored of it, however zingy the accessories. Also I’m a bit apprehensive about horror stories I’ve heard about stripping back paint, am worried about lead paint with a little girl around and don’t think my bricks will be as pretty as those below.

Option two in my mind is to paint the whole thing a lovely soft celadon green with white trim as here (pic again from Decor8) and keep things a bit more muted. In which case the fireplace could either go white, or a perhaps a slightly darker soft sage green.

However, in the UK most of our fireplaces are white, so it would feel odd to paint it another colour. (Am I right in thinking that most people who voted for ‘paint it a toning colour’ are from the US?) The other problem here is the stained glass in yellow and raspberry, which I’m not sure will go at all (though maybe raspberry accents will help?)

Di and co, I hear you about changing the mantle. However the current mantle is, I think, original, and has been been beautifully crafted to work with the raised brickwork on the fireplace, so I feel I ought to be respectful of it.

Adding some texture to the inserts would be lovely. Does anyone know what sort of thing would have been added here originally? I was assuming tile, but there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of tiles having been applied.

Elizabeth, I know next to nothing about feng shui but am very willing to give it a go if it will make me happier and more prosperous! This room is to the bottom left of the grid, with the East facing wall running along the bottom (the wall with the fireplace and stained glass faces South). Any advice based on that?

Can you hear my confusion? I’m going to try and get my head round this over the next week or so and start getting a mood board together, at which point we’ll do another poll. I also need to pull together the key inspiration pieces I want to use in this room. In the meantime. any further thoughts or suggestions would be very welcome.

Over to you

April 12, 2007 By Paola 8 Comments

Given that, unlike some, I don’t have a remote interior designer, I was wondering whether you guys would like to help out with the process of designing the new house.

So welcome to the first mirrormirror ‘interactive interior designer’ poll.

Though I don’t promise to always act on your advice, I’m genuinely interested to hear what you think. Please expand on your ideas if necessary in the comments box and if you want, let me know in the comments which country you’re from. It will be fascinating to see if we get international differences of opinion.

NB. Option 4 is unlikely to be the right answer

Exhibit 1 is the bright red fireplace in the main sitting room, which has a large window facing east and smaller stained glass windows in yellow and faded red facing south. The room is flooded with light in the morning and remains very light for most of the day. (By the way, we’re going to be discussing/dissing the wallcolour and the stove at a later date)

So, what would you do with the fireplace it if you were me?

Life is a bowl of cherries

April 7, 2007 By Paola 3 Comments

Look what splendour awaited us in our tiny ‘backyard’ when we returned from London.

This old cherry tree is immense, dominates the pocket handkerchief lawn and was looking astonishingly beautiful on the glorious Spring day which greeted us.

The previous owners also left us a very charming note bequeathing us their orchard ladder and cherry pitter.

Please forward all your favourite cherry recipes to yours truly – I think they’re going to be needed.

The street where we live

March 28, 2007 By Paola 3 Comments

was looking quite insanely pretty the day we moved in.

Note to self. Don’t ever, ever, ever move house and pack to go away on the same weekend. (Written sitting in the bathroom in the middle of the night at our hotel in London. I love jetlag.)